Newspaper ignorance!

Why even read the junk science these ignoramuses print?

Mlive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "
Error shifts local rankings on bad air 'list of infamy'
Thursday, December 15, 2005
By Jeff Alexander and Dave LeMieux
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITERS
Muskegon Heights can breathe easy, but Muskegon County residents who live along the Lake Michigan coast may be wheezy due to industrial air pollution that blows across the lake from Chicago and Gary, Ind.
That was the gist of a correction The Associated Press issued late Wednesday, after the news service reported that people living in Muskegon Heights breathe some of the nation's most polluted air.
An AP story read on TV newscasts and published in newspapers across the state Wednesday, including The Chronicle, reported that four of the state's five most at-risk neighborhoods for health hazards due to industrial air pollution were in Muskegon Heights. As it turns out, residents in four mostly white areas in Muskegon, Norton Shores and Roosevelt Park face some of the nation's most serious health risks from breathing polluted air, according to EPA data analyzed by the AP.
Local health officials said they are skeptical of the rankings and the methods used to create them.
'It doesn't seem plausible to me,' said Ken Kraus, director of the Muskegon County Health Department. 'It would seem to me that places producing the pollution, places like Houston, Detroit and Gary, would have the highest pollution levels.
'There has to be some dissipation of that stuff (smog-forming air pollution) when it comes across the lake,' Kraus said.
Muskegon Heights City Manager Melvin C. Burns II said he didn't think Wednesday's erroneous article will have a long-range negative effect on the city.
'It's safe to breathe the air in Muskegon Heights,' Burns said. 'We kno"

Huh?

Didn't Gary Thrasher just stiff a bunch of folks who he owed money to at Dockers?

Planning commission OKs permit for tavern: "Planning commission OKs permit for tavern
Saturday, December 17, 2005
By Robert C. Burns
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
A bar and restaurant planned for West Western Avenue in downtown Muskegon got a boost from the city's planning commission Thursday.
Planning commissioners unanimously approved a special-use permit for the single-story building at 609 W. Western -- future home of The Tipsy Toad Tavern........
Gary Thrasher, Hoby's older brother, describes himself as a 'managing partner' in The Tipsy Toad. He also has been involved in a number of local drinking and dining establishments, most recently Dockers at Harbour Towne. "

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

Nifty
The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005 (web2.wsj2.com)

Clinton's "Boogie to Baghdad"

Chronicle kinda forgot to HEADLINE this fact....bummer.

Remember please remember "Boogie to Baghdad": "In case you don't remember, "Boogie to Baghdad" is the phrase that Richard Clarke, when he was the top White House counterterrorism official during the Clinton administration, used to express his fear that if American forces pushed Osama bin Laden too hard at his hideout in Afghanistan, bin Laden might move to Iraq, where he could stay in the protection of Saddam Hussein."

Anita Bryant's Cure

Didn't this gal used to sell Florida orange juice?
Anita Bryant's Cure (National Lampoon Spoof: 1977)

In Remembrance

Remembering those who gave the last full measure.

In Remembrance: "The Moving Tributes below were created by friends and family of the men and women featured on the In Remembrance site.

To view a tribute, please click on the service member's name. The tribute will load in a new window"

Shop-Till-You-Drop Specials, Revealed Here First - New York Times

Amazing site for SuperShoppers
The NYT finally has a column without a lie!
The "specials" site is bf2005.net

Shop-Till-You-Drop Specials, Revealed Here First - New York Times:
"November 17, 2005
Shop-Till-You-Drop Specials, Revealed Here First
By MICHAEL BARBARO
For retailers, the day after Thanksgiving is a painstakingly orchestrated affair.
Prices are scientifically slashed, down to the penny. Sales begin at dawn. And glossy circulars containing the well-laid plans are distributed just a day or two ahead to keep consumers and competitors in the dark.
Or at least that is how it worked before people like Michael Brim came along. From a cramped dorm room in California, Mr. Brim, an 18-year-old college freshman who dines on Lucky Charms and says he rarely shops, is abruptly pulling back the curtain on the biggest shopping day of the year.
His Web site, BF2005.net, publishes the circulars for what retailers call Black Friday - the day that officially starts the holiday shopping season - weeks ahead of time.
So far this year, sources have leaked advertisements to him from Toys 'R' Us (showing the Barbie Fashion Show Mall, regularly $99.99, for $29.97); Sears (a Canon ZR100 MiniDV camcorder, regularly $329.99, for $249.99); and Ace Hardware (a Skil 12-volt drill, regularly $44.99, for $24.99)."

NS Mayor has his own plans!

Chronicle shocked!

Mlive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "City faces some 'hard decisions,' new mayor says
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
By Nancy Stier
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
New Norton Shores Mayor Jerry Wiersma said the city faces some 'hard decisions' because voters last week rejected a new charter that would have allowed for gradual increases in property taxes.
But Wiersma, sworn in Monday as the new mayor after giving up the city council seat he has held for 18 years, plans to go slow at first.
He said that during his first few months in office he intends to 'feel my way along,' essentially preserving the status quo until the council collectively works with staff in February on the next city budget. "

Irony?

The Chronicle posits that a wife cheater can't promote the institution of marriage. Suggesting "just go away". Never heard that during their Clinton crush. Hypocracy!

Mlive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "There is a certain irony here, especially in Cox's case, that bears a parting comment. This Attorney General was a poster boy for last year's anti-gay marriage amendment, and for taking away unmarried partner benefits in alliance with those who scream these are destroying 'the sacred institution of marriage.' Such hypocrisy.
Please, Mr. Cox and Mr. Fieger: Just go away. "

Chronicle idiocy about the NS millage

The Chronicle editorial board has no clue about how a city might "maintain services" other than to give polititians a blank check. Well, how 'bout demanding that our leaders articulate the specifics of the spending need? And show us how they've been thrifty in the past?

Mlive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "Voters left communities without answers
Sunday, November 13, 2005
The hard work of actually running local government became much more difficult last week after voters in Norton Shores, Roosevelt Park, North Muskegon and Grand Haven, and a number of local townships, turned down ballot issues that, yes, would have raised taxes, but more importantly were aimed at keeping communities livable and safe.
So now that the voters have had their say at the ballot box on these various tax-related issues, what can local officials do to maintain the services people expect and deserve. Anyone? "

The Chronicle doesn't tell you this!

Amazing how the MSM kinda forgets this stuff....

This war is for real: "1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer, as far as the United States is concerned, is 1979 � 22 years prior to September 2001 � with the following attacks on us:
Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
Beirut, Lebanon, Embassy, 1983;
Beirut, Lebanon, Marine Barracks, 1983;
Lockerbie, Scotland, Pan-Am flight to New York, 1988;
First New York World Trade Center attack, 1993;
Oklahoma City � Murrah Federal Building, 1995;
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Khobar Towers Military complex, 1996;
Nairobi, Kenya, U.S. Embassy, 1998;
Dares Salaam, Tanzania, U.S. Embassy, 1998;
Aden, Yemen, USS Cole, 2000;
New York, World Trade Center, 2001;
Pentagon, 2001;
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Plane Crash, 2001
(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide). "

Lots of complaints about Muskegon Cops, or the lack of...

If this isn't addressed soon the City may well go the way of Benton Harbor.
MLive.com: Muskegon Town Talk Forum
6462. ? about police dept.
by missygal, 6/17/05 9:10 ET
We had a problem in our area with teens/people destroying property during the night and when I asked why the patrol cars don't notice things going on I was told that we only have 4 patrol cars for the whole city at night and those officers have to answer all types of calls that come in. I was also told that there are more officers who work inside the dept. mostly during the day hours than really necessary. Instead of putting them on the road our chief has decided to have them "inside" even the new officers that we thought were going to be out on patrol. During the day we have a few more "community officers" on duty but they have other jobs to do under their job description too

Senior Democrat gives aid to our enemies!

If there is any question about differences between the GOPers and the Democrats, Durban's sick rant should end the debate. He's the second highest ranking Demo senator. The Democrats are clearly the political party that supports the forces who would kill our soldiers. Disgusting. And the MSM won't let the masses know the truth.

Nets Target U.S. Military "Abuses," But Skip Dick Durbins "Nazi" Rant " -- 06/16/2005 - Media Research Center - Media Reality Check: "A Democratic Senate Senate Leader Compares American Soldiers To POL POT, Stalin's Gulag, and Nazis- Why Is That Not News?
Nets Target U.S. Military 'Abuses,'
But Skip Dick Durbins 'Nazi' Rant '
Complaints about the U.S. military's treatment of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay were once again featured on all three broadcast network evening newscasts Wednesday. Full stories on ABC, CBS and NBC cast the military on the defensive at congressional hearings. CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer � who has likened Guantanamo to the 'Hanoi Hilton,' the infamous North Vietnamese prison camp � grumped that 'Congress asked a lot of questions today' about Guantanamo, but 'the problem is, they didn't get many answers.'
ABC followed up its story on yesterday's hearings with a second full report by ABC's Terry Moran, who zeroed in on a memo written more than two years ago by a Navy lawyer questioning the interrogation techniques at Guantanamo. Only in the last sentence of a nearly three-minute story did Moran allow how the issue is really moot, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had 'dialed back' the rules of interrogation in early 2003.
But while the networks kept their spotlight on the U.S. military's conduct, none of last night's broadcasts bothered to note a Tuesday speech by Minority Whip Dick Durbin � the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate. Describing the treatment of al-Qaeda terrorists at the Guantanamo prison � including allegations that inmates are kept too hot or too cold, or forced to stay awake � Durbin wildly charged that 'you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some "

Legal opinion may break county impasse on board chair

Ain't legal opinions great?

Legal opinion may break county impasse on board chair: "Legal opinion may break county impasse on board chair
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
By Steve Gunn
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Most Muskegon County commissioners have resisted making Bill Gill chairman of the county board, but it appears they may accept him in that role for at least six months due to the legal persuasion of Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
In an opinion released to commissioners last week, Tague wrote that Gill, vice chairman of the county board, automatically became chairman when former Commissioner Paul Baade resigned from the position in May.
According to Tague, Gill has the legal right to complete the balance of Baade's term"

Enviro-hypocrites!

Where are the hoards of environmentalists on this never-ending disgrace. If this was a tax-paying business dumping endlessly the enviro-leftists would (correctly) be screaming bloody murder! But because it is "government" pissing in our water it's OK? What hypocrites!

Warning issued after sewage overflow: "Warning issued after sewage overflow
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
FROM LOCAL REPORTS
A no-contact advisory has been issued for the entire length of the Grand River in Ottawa County until Thursday.
The advisory was issued Monday because the city of Grand Rapids released an estimated 1.73 million gallons of untreated sewage Saturday. The advisory will expire at 8 a.m. Thursday according to the Ottawa County Health Department. "

Forgot the "F" word!

This editorial from the Milwaukee Sentinel is "exhibit one" in media bias. They intentionally mislabel Democrats as Dixiecrats (a term made up by the media. The Senators were members of the Democrat Party, not the dixiecrat party.) and, what a surprise! They forget to mention that the Democrats used the FILIBUSTER to defeat this bill when it was introduced. But our media somehow forgets to tell us that it was the Democrat filibuster that kept the lynching bill from passing. But when GOPers want to restrict the Filibuster it's a horror. Gimme a break....

JS Online: Editorial: Senate apology is first step: "Editorial: Senate apology is first step
From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: June 13, 2005
For much of American history, the U.S. Senate did not acquit itself well on the issue of race. A particularly shameful chapter in that regard was the refusal of that august body in the first half of the last century to make lynching a federal crime. In defeating bills to do that time and again, Dixiecrats (as Southern Democrats were called) added insult to injury with oratory that described black men as beasts from whom white women needed protection, through lynchings.

"Free" Healthcare Horror cont.

More horror stories from the "free healthcare" front. This time it's our old friend "Canadian Style Health Care".

OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "Unsocialized Medicine
A landmark ruling exposes Canada's health-care inequity.

Monday, June 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
Let's hope Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy were sitting down when they heard the news of the latest bombshell Supreme Court ruling. From the Supreme Court of Canada, that is. That high court issued an opinion last Thursday saying, in effect, that Canada's vaunted public health-care system produces intolerable inequality."

Sorta familiar...

I sat on a jury where the facts were pretty clear that the guy did rape the gal. The problem was that the guy seemed to be a pretty nice fellow and the victim and her mother were really bad folks. Liars and thieves as the defense proved. I'm pretty sure that the guy did it but most everyone on the jury hated the victim and her mother so much that the perp walked. I would have been the only holdout and it would have resulted in a hung jury. So I folded. Mike Jackson won because his jury hated the mother of the main witness. I can't believe the prosecutor will be reelected

The promise of college

This is so wrong on so many levels but what the heck did they spend $875,000 on? Alarm clocks? There is no tuition in that number. And that insightful comment by the Baker College President has me shaking my head. If students don't get a guarantee of free college they won't graduate from high school? Asinine!

The promise of college: Read it all but this is the raw meat:

In contrast, LEAD 2005 was made possible by an $875,000 federal grant that paid for the advocates and student activities and field trips over the six years. In addition, more than $600,000 in tuition and college living costs are expected to be paid by GVSU, MCC, Baker and the Community Foundation for the next school year alone.

Rick Amidon, president of Baker College, believes that if students have doubts about their ability to afford college, they have a "disincentive" to graduate from high school. He said Baker -- where average annual tuition is $7,000 -- provided the tuition incentive because "it's the right thing to do."

"The fact (the advocates) were consistently there every year from seventh grade made all the difference in the world, and that teaches us a lot of things about how students should be educated."

"It's taking the time to do something different," Foster said. "You have to change your thoughts about education."
"You can get a kid to college, but you need to get them to believe it."

'One Muskegon' aims to promote 'all for one' idea

Another abominable idea in a series of abominable ideas but this one is even more insidious because the co-chairman is the publisher of The Chronicle. That means that only one side of the story will be told to the citizens of Muskegon. Watch out Muskegon!

'One Muskegon' aims to promote 'all for one' idea: "'One Muskegon' aims to promote 'all for one' idea
Sunday, June 12, 2005
By Dave Alexander
CHRONICLE BUSINESS EDITOR
A group of community leaders have concluded that Muskegon needs a 'unified' government and they have now formed a committee to make that happen.
Government consolidation has gone from the back burner to the forefront because of fiscal problems that grip nearly every local government in Muskegon County these days. Now the 'One Muskegon Task Force' has a four-point program of not only talking about functional and political consolidation, but establishing an action plan.
Co-chaired by Norton Shores Mayor Nancy Crandall and Muskegon Chronicle Publisher Gary Ostrom, the newly forming government consolidation group represents community leaders in business, government and nonprofit institutions. It's an offshoot of the Muskegon Area Children's Agenda, a Community Foundation for Muskegon County initiative examining ways to make the area better for children. "

WorldNetDaily: How to stop suicide bombers

Does anyone doubt that this would work? This was written in 2002! Read the whole piece.

WorldNetDaily: How to stop suicide bombers: "One sure way to stop the suicide bombers in Israel is to hold the parents responsible for their child's crime. "

In exchange for sacrificing their child, they receive from Saddam Hussein or Saudi Arabia a cash payment of $35,000.

....will that stop the suicide bombers? No. But executing the parents will.

Counter the lies!

The Neo-Libs and the MSM don't want you to read this. Decision 08 links to one of the most respected "on site" commentators in Iraq. Arm yourself with the truth and forward it to other openminded folks.

Decision '08: "Today's Must-Read: Good News From Iraq
One could be forgiven for thinking that Iraq was the biggest disaster since - well, since Vietnam, the MSM's favorite point of comparison. Granted, everyone had hoped things would be better than they are by now; still, things aren't ALL bad, and Arthur Chrenkoff's latest installment of Good News from Iraq provides a welcome counterpoint to all the doom and gloom, and a good reminder of why we're there and what we're fight for... "

from Chrenkoff: "Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said.

The Neo-Lib Party

The Neo-Libs have stolen the Party from the average Democrat. Does anyone remember the days of Democrat patriots? How does the union member with an American flag on his pickup feel about the millionaire name callers?

My Way News: "WASHINGTON (AP) - Howard Dean said Saturday that positive responses from key supporters have reinforced his determination to keep talking tough. Some congressional Democrats have suggested that the party chairman should tone down his rhetoric.
'People want us to fight,' Dean told the national party's executive committee. 'We are here to fight.'
Over the past week, Dean described Republicans as 'pretty much a white, Christian party' and said many in the GOP 'never made an honest living.'"

One Night Changes a Life, and Calif. Town

Sometimes, with all the "bad news all the time" TV networks, we miss some really nice stories. Bring a hankie to this site. Enjoy.

One Night Changes a Life, and Calif. Town - Yahoo! News: "CLOVIS, Calif. - The chant began late in the fourth quarter in the basketball gym at Clovis East High. The students started it first, clapping their hands in unison and pounding the bleachers with their feet. It didn't take long for the parents to pick it up, too. The noise grew until the whole gym seemed to shake. 'We want Ryno. We want Ryno.' "

Maybe you missed this in The Chronicle?

Oops. Must have slipped their mind. Bloggers have long memories. Can you imagine if Byrd had been a Republican how the MSM would play this fact?

Captain's Quarters: "That's what made the recent debate over the use of the filibuster such a tragic joke. Having Senator Robert Byrd, a former KKK recruiter, get up in the well of the Senate and lecture the GOP and the nation that ending the filibuster presented a danger to the Republic amounted to historical revisionism of the worst kind. ........... Thanks to racists like Byrd, that tradition of filibustering continues today. In fact, Byrd (who isn't even mentioned in this article) filibustered the original Civil Rights Act in 1964, eating up 14 hours of debate before his own caucus finally put an end to his embarrassing display. It is a practice that allows the entire democratic process of the United States to be held hostage by a minority, even if it now requires a larger minority than before the rule changes which eliminated the need for continuous speechmaking. "

Liberal ideas destroy hope

The best columnist in the country hits the nail on the head again.

June 11, 2005
Why Liberal Ideas Are Counterproductive for the Poor?
By Thomas Sowell
Sometimes it seems as if liberals have a genius for producing an unending stream of ideas that are counterproductive for the poor, whom they claim to be helping. Few of these notions are more counterproductive than the idea of 'menial work' or 'dead-end jobs.'
Think about it: Why do employers pay people to do 'menial' work? Because the work has to be done. What useful purpose is served by stigmatizing work that someone is going to have to do anyway?
Is emptying bed pans in a hospital menial work? What would happen if bed pans didn't get emptied? Let people stop emptying bed pans for a month and there would be bigger problems than if sociologists stopped working for a year."

Where is the outrage at brainwashing children to become suicide bombers?

Just wondering.....

Isn't this Koran abuse?

Wouldn't a bunch of Koran's get blown up and desecrated in this little protest? Not to mention 20 or so Koran carriers. Where is the outrage?

Suicide bomber kills 20 at anti-Taliban cleric's funeral / Levon Sevunts A suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral of a senior anti-Taliban Muslim cleric yesterday, killing 20 persons and wounding at least 40 others. (World)

Gitmo abuse

More proof of the hypocrisy of the anti-American media and the Amnesty International crowd. Amazing to me is that there is far more REPORTED abuse in US jails (murder, suicide, beatings, rape, etc, etc...) than has even been alleged at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and the MSM seems to be ....silent? And if we hint that prisoners might be sent to other countries the lefties have a fit. Maybe it's a bit more challenging to be a prisoner in, say, Turkey than Gitmo? Selective outrage breeds contempt. Instapundit provides the link.

Instapundit.com -: "June 09, 2005
MAX BOOT:
All the headlines about 'Abuse of the Koran at Gitmo' are absolutely accurate. Brig. Gen. Jay Hood's internal investigation has uncovered some shocking incidents. On at least six occasions, Korans were ripped up. They were urinated on three times, and attempts were made to flush them down the toilet at least three other times.
Why aren't millions of Muslims rioting in response to these defilements? Because the perpetrators were prisoners, not guards. As John Hinderaker notes on weeklystandard.com, the most serious desecrations of the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were committed by the Muslim inmates themselves.
Read the whole thing, which is quite justifiably harsh on the news media and NGO hysteria surrounding this report."

"Free" medicalcare horror story

This same thing is happening in Canada. Don't believe those who offer something for nothing. Read the whole story for a glimpse into our medical future.

OpinionJournal - Extra: "There's No Place Like Home
What I learned from my wife's month in the British medical system.
...Suddenly we were in the hands of British Health Service, and after a battery of tests we were being pressured into officially admitting my wife to UCL. As we discovered later, emergency care is free for everyone in Britain; it's only when one is officially admitted to a hospital that a foreigner begins to pay. I didn't know that. But I did know that I was not about to admit my wife to a hospital that could not diagnose an obviously life-threatening affliction. And even after having given her an MRI, the doctors could not tell if she had a stroke.

Hump day at Guantanamo

Maybe this will make Amnesty International happy. Next thing, they'll want half-days on Fridays.
The Borowitz Report .com: "BUSH CONSIDERS CLOSING GUANTANAMO ON WEDNESDAYS
President's Proposal Falls Short of Gitmo Opponents Demands
Hoping to appease those who have called in recent days for the U.S. to close the detention center at Guantanamo, Cuba, President Bush announced today that he was considering closing the facility on Wednesdays.

Mr. Bush made the proposal in remarks in the White House Rose Garden today, telling reporters, "Under my plan, there would zero tolerance for abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo, on Wednesdays at least. "

BLACKFIVE: The Third Rule of War

This has never been written with more eloquence. Please remember and honor the memory of all our fallen soldiers and airmen. Very moving.
BLACKFIVE: The Third Rule of War:
"The Last Full Measure
By Col. Brett Wyrick USAF
"The first rule of war is that young men and women die. The second rule of war is that surgeons cannot change the first rule. "

Where's the Wendy's "chilli-finger" gal when we need her?

I hope someone brought the dip.

HoustonChronicle.com - Potato-chip can sits where woman's ashes were:
"Synagogue sued over missing ashes"
Potato-chip can found in place of woman's remains in mausoleum
By ROMA KHANNA
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Carlos Antonio Rios/Chronicle
The empty niche at left at Congregation Beth Israel's mausoleum once held the ashes of Vivian Shulman Lieberman. The niche of her husband, Seymour Lieberman, is at right.
When relatives of Vivian Shulman Lieberman went to visit her final resting place in a Houston mausoleum one year ago today, they discovered that the cedar chest containing her ashes was missing.
In its place, behind the locked, glass door of Lieberman's niche in Congregation Beth Israel's mausoleum, was a can of sour-cream-and-onion potato chips."

Interesting comment

LiamGadfly responds to my "brilliant" analysis: I respond to him.

MLive.com: Muskegon Town Talk Forum: "6410.4.1.1. Not so fast Gordo...
by LiamGadfly, 6/10/05 12:23 ET
Re: Cook's closed? by Barman241, 6/10/05

"... It's always sad when a business closes its doors but our system of competition and innovation has given us the world's greatest economy."
While I don't deny that the free market is the best of all possible worlds, to say that that the flood of cheap consumer goods that have inundated our economy is a result of a "free market" is disingenuous to say the least. (true, ours is not a perfect "free market", but it's the freest in the world today) It is more the result of one sided trade policy that gave us nothing in return. (nothing in return? They give us goods and we give them IOUs. Who comes out better in that deal?) It is also the result of low wage countries dumping underpriced goods on us. & when we have squandered the last of our wealth on all these trinkets & baubles, then where will we be? With nothing left to invest in our antiquated infrastructure, or to invest in attracting new business's or new manufacturing capacity, or a base from which we may support our government @ all levels, etc. etc. etc. We also will be left with no jobs to provide the wealth to keep it all going, including the current buying spree, as well as to support the minimum of government services, that we all have come to rely upon. (Interesting, but do you have any facts to support this doomed scenario?)
Gordo, to say that we have the worlds greatest economy is to truly view it through rose colored lenses. This is especially true of someone sitting in Muskegon - America's poster child, for a stagnating local economy. (Thankfully, the Muskegon/Michigan model for an economy is not shared by the rest of the country. Our national economy is, by almost every measure, as strong as it has ever been.)
There are some inherently disturbing trends in our economy that if not addressed could literally take us from solvency to a third rate entity in no time @ all. The loss of manufacturing is the most glaring. (Surely you're not suggesting that a job working in a foundry or steel mill is "better" than working at a bank, movie studio or software company or any of the other service sector jobs in America) The loss of markets & the loss of production acreage to urbanization in agriculture is another. (Come on, take an airplane ride and look out the window. Then tell me about the loss of production acreage. We have more land being paid not to farm than many countries have being farmed) A third is the over valuation of real estate markets due to easy monetary policy which has been used as a lubricant to fuel residential & commercial construction, in order to fill the void that the loss of manufacturing has left in the GNP. When even the usually taciturn Saint Greenspan speaks of a bubble in the housing markets, then I get nervous. (No arguement about a RE bubble in some markets but RE bubbles happen all the time. It's just that the media is selling it as something that's never happened before (it has, many times) and something that will affect the entire country in some massive and terrible manner. (It won't, never has before.) Add to all of that the increased Global demand for oil, & the Hundred Year War for oil that we have just begun to engage in, then I don't see the picture as being so rosy. But when you are caught in the middle of the throes of a shop till you drop frenzy, it is hard to be objective & not walk around in the high of denial. But believe me, a day of reckoning will come, & you are not going to like the result. Muskegon's economy may just be a early indicator (a canary in the coal mine) of what is to come on the economic front. It may be an example of the long term chronic economic stagnation that will become embedded & common in much of the rest of the country for some time to come. So enjoy your big flat screen TV while you can, because eventually you may have to cue up for expensive rolls of toilet paper just like they do in Russia, unless of course the dollar becomes worthless enough to use as a substitute. ;-)
(Pretty much the standard doom and gloom, half empty rather than half full argument I've seen repeated ever so many times. You're going to have to back up the gloom with some facts first. Thanks for the input.

More leftist hate

Victory, a Michigan blog, posts this outrage. No wonder "they hate us". The world's leftists spew a never ending tsunami of this hate inducing garbage to the citizens of their countries ever day.
Victory welfarE: "TV show depicts 9/11 as Bush plot
A fictional crime drama based on the premise that the Bush administration ordered the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington aired this week on German state television, prompting the Green Party chairman to call for an investigation."

And how 'bout this itty bit of "unbiased" reporting from the good folks at ABC.( courtesy MediaResearch.org)
3. ABC: North Koreans Hate Americans, Offer Great Music/Art for Kids North Koreans are isolated from outside information and fed a steady diet of anti-American propaganda, but that apparently doesn't make the anti-American comments from regime operatives, or citizens with minders standing nearby, unnewsworthy to ABC.
"There are large gaps in what the world knows about the North Korean leader and his people," World News Tonight anchor Elizabeth Vargas noted before asserting that "many North Koreans, it seems, have strong opinions about Americans." From Pyongyang, Bob Woodruff went aboard the captured USS Pueblo and relayed how the "officer who gave us a tour today said the ship's an example of American crimes and another reason Koreans don't like Americans." The uniformed woman declared: "They invaded to our territory, and they supplied information, so all Koreans were angry." Woodruff traveled to a collective farm where he found an 11-year-old girl who said of Americans: "They killed Korean people." Finally, Woodruff went to the "Children's Palace" where "5,000 North Korean kids are trained after school in music, art and sports." The video showed healthy kids in colorful uniforms paying instruments, painting and dancing.
Plus, they've got free health care!

Ummm. Good crow...

I love being wrong! I thought this deal was a bad one for the GOPers and the Country. It looks like I can eat my crow with a smile on my face. Decision 08 http://decision08.blogspot.com/ rubs it in.

Decision '08: "Today's Must-Read: The NY Times On Judicial Nominations
The true test of the compromise lies ahead, says the NY Times, but of course, that begs the point that critics of the deal were saying we would only get three nominees without a fight. Well, we've got five, and the Time article suggests the sixth will follow Monday. Remind me again what we lost? I'm having a hard time remembering. Ohio Republican Mike DeWine gets the last word:"

Dean done?

I can't imagine a GOP Chairman lasting near this long with similar gaffs and the mis-leadership of Dean. What must democrats be thinking? One of the brightest of the group is Ford and he's not hiding his opinion.

JustOneMinute: Harold Ford Missed The "Get Behind Dean" Memo:
Harold Ford Missed The 'Get Behind Dean' Memo
Dems are rallying behind Dean, but Harold Ford of TN missed the memo. From his appearance on Imus this morning:
June 9, 2005
Imus: 'On another note here, speaking of the Democratic Party, which you are a member of, how's Howard Dean working for you?'
Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: '(Laughing) I won't have him down so many times in Tennessee on the campaign trail with me. He has made some comments as of late that really speak to a lack of understanding I think, of the country, a lack of understanding of faith and values. I'm a Democrat and I'm a God fearing one. I grew up in church. Christianity is not reserved for white males"

Today's grads face uncertain future, but with hope - 06/10/05

I pine for the good old days when every graduate had a "certain" future. This is all Bush's fault! Aren't newspapers getting better?!

Today's grads face uncertain future, but with hope - 06/10/05: "Friday, June 10, 2005
Today's grads face uncertain future, but with hope
By Betty DeRamus / The Detroit News"

17 Chinese Restaurants Raided in Mich.

We had two restaurants raided in Muskegon. It's amazing to me that the stated reason for the raids was tax evasion and saving the illegals from being "indentured servants". They're here illegally for gosh sakes! That illegal Chinese were in Muskegon has hardly been a secret to me and certainly not a secret to the police. I've seen them in Meijers and outside waiting for the bus. Is the new political correctness that law enforcement will never be used to deport illegals but only to protect them?

Newsday.com: 17 Chinese Restaurants Raided in Mich.:
17 Chinese Restaurants Raided in Mich.
By JOHN FLESHER
Associated Press Writer

June 9, 2005, 5:35 PM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Authorities raided 17 Chinese restaurants around Michigan that they suspect of ducking millions of dollars in taxes and importing undocumented workers as a 'modern version of indentured servants.'
Search warrants were also served at 21 homes of suspected undocumented Chinese workers. Dozens were involved in the scheme, State Police Lt. Curt Schram said. "

WZZM13 GRAND RAPIDS Friday, June 10, 2005

Weening the children into good little socialists. This is the fiscal mentality that got GR into its current financial mess. Will we never learn......

WZZM13 GRAND RAPIDS Friday, June 10, 2005:
Grand Rapids Summer Meals Program -Parks and School Locations

The Grand Rapids Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services Department will be sponsoring the USDA funded Summer Meals Program again this summer in locations through out the city. Meals will be available Monday through Friday, beignning June 13."

Way too much at stake to continue county's impasse

Like many who love to talk and don't don't have the spine to act, the Chronicle's Gang of 3 dare not suggest the specifics of the "anarchy" nor do they hint of any path out of the "impasse". If Bill Gill was not "Bill Gill", he'd be out in a minute because of his unprofessional and rude behavior. There most certainly is a big reason why Muskegon is "Muskegon" and the surrounding communities are thriving. Leadership. And The Chronicle has supported politically correct, inept and corrupt leaders at every level in this community as far back as anyone can remember.
Way too much at stake to continue county's impasse: "Way too much at stake to continue county's impasse
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Was Tuesday's abortive Muskegon County Board of Commissioners meeting a new low for that body? Perhaps not, but there's still another meeting set for June 14! Actually, we don't recommend any further attempts at diving deeper; there's too much at stake for the county's citizens, who have to live with the consequences of commission anarchy.
Anarchy is not overstating the case. The last chairman resigned in the middle of his term, the commission's vice chairman adjourned the last meeting to avoid being passed over in the line of succession, and no one seems to have a solid grasp of Robert's Rules of Order, which are supposed to bring order to such chaotic meetings. "

Howmet union OKs landmark pact

This is great news. Maybe this is the end of suicidal unionism in Muskegon. But, it sure looks like the union bosses did a poor job of explaining the new contract to the rank and file the first time. Maybe someone ought to look into that story? Come on Chronicle show some class and tell us (and the union members who almost voted themselves out of their jobs) what really happened!

Howmet union OKs landmark pact: "Howmet union OKs landmark pact
Thursday, June 09, 2005
By Dave Alexander
CHRONICLE BUSINESS EDITOR
Members of United Auto Workers Local 1243 made a dramatic turnaround on a tentative five-year agreement with Howmet Castings and approved the labor contract Wednesday after turning it down two weeks ago. "
"The key was a clarification of the health insurance," Burton said. "They now understand the plan and the sharing of costs, which is a new concept. Overall, this was a good package."

The contract provisions did not change from the first vote to the second vote, she said.

Leaders debate ways to sell tax increases to 'frugal' residents

How 'bout this for an alternative headline: "City taxpayers united in desire for frugal city government". How many times do we, the citizen, have to fight the same fight?

Leaders debate ways to sell tax increases to 'frugal' residents: "Leaders debate ways to sell tax increases to 'frugal' residents
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
By Nancy Stier
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
Looking for help in getting voters to provide more property tax revenue and change the city charter, Norton Shores officials summoned more than 20 community leaders to suggest how they should get the job done. "

Does The Chronicle see the light?

Wow! The Gang of 3 at The Chronicle finally admit that it IS the taxpayers who pay ALL of the bills!
But, that "very low tax rate" is still troubling. I guess some things never change.

Much depends on successful end to Howmet talks: "Taxpayers will end up paying regardless
The city of Norton Shores is ready to start slapping on user fees for police and fire services. While residents may find that their insurance companies will pick up the cost, ultimately, though, it seems clear that the taxpayer will get hit regardless.
Responsibility for this chain of events is the growing gap between city tax revenues and the cost of services. Despite Norton Shores' very low tax rate as a city, residents have been consistently unwilling to approve any hike. While city officials have kept trying, it strikes us that voter refusal is in keeping with a long tradition of Norton Shores history in which many still think of their home as 'the old township.' "

Much depends on successful end to Howmet talks

Chronicle editorial. I never cease to be amazed at such lazy commentary. If this really is such an important issue, why not a complete, detailed analysis of the differences between the parties and the specific points of the rejected contract. Apparently, it's not THAT important. And they wonder why we don't read them any more.....

Much depends on successful end to Howmet talks: "But make no mistake. Much depends upon a successful outcome. Given the importance of the company to our community, it can be said with assurance that how goes Howmet, goes Muskegon County. "

Granholm tight-lipped on DeVos candidacy

Leave it to the MSM, The Chronicle and democrats in general to suggest that being a wealthy, successful executive of a company that has provided so much positive support to West Michigan could be a negative. Ah, but they still love the Kennedys....

Granholm tight-lipped on DeVos candidacy: "There was a big elephant in the room Saturday, but Gov. Jennifer Granholm refused to pay it any attention.
There was a big elephant in the room Saturday, but Gov. Jennifer Granholm refused to pay it any attention. ....

"I'm not going to talk about a campaign that's 17 months away," she said, anticipating news media questions about her potential Republican rival, Dick DeVos, the Ada resident and former Alticor chief executive officer who broke the news last week he was running for governor. .....

Democrats are sure to pound on DeVos' image as a wealthy heir, leaving some Republicans to ponder how he will deal with that tactic.

The kids get it right!

The kids realize that the lefty, anti-military liars and their willing enablers in the MSM can't be believed. Cool dude!
The Huffington Post The Blog: "06.04.2005 Eugene Volokh
Could College Students Know Something Bloggers Don't?
Bill Diamond writes:
But given all the talk about the possible reinstatement of the draft, why aren't we hearing more from the nation's campuses? ........I wonder: Could it be that college students don't really think 'all the talk about the possible reinstatement of the draft' means anything? From what I've heard, the talk is mostly from people who don't like the Administration, who oppose the war in Iraq, and who are using the talk to argue against the war.
The Administration is saying it doesn't want a draft. The political party in power in Congress seems to have no interest in reinstating the draft.

Commissioner: City 'close to receivership'

This is really pathetic! This "city" was rolling in cash after it initiated its jobs and business killing taxes. And promptly began pissing it all away. And media hailed the new tax $$$ as the best thing since sliced bread.And then began their drumbeat for Muskegon to do the same thing. Maybe their suggestion will be an EVEN BIGGER TAX? Sickening!
Commissioner: City 'close to receivership': "Commissioner: City 'close to receivership'
Friday, June 03, 2005
By Theresa D. McClellan
CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE
When Third Ward City Commissioner James White wanted to bring home the city's dire financial straits to a group of residents Thursday, he held two of his fingers close together and said the city was 'this close to receivership.'
'The city is broke, and we're scared to death downtown,' White said during a public gathering at his Southeast Side church.
When a city goes into state receivership, it is unable to pay its bills, employees don't get paid and its bond ratings plummet. A struggling Detroit is wrestling with that question now, as it faces a $300 million deficit in next year's budget. "

Where would the left be without their Myths?

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this one, at least 100 times in the last year. I'm thinking that one reason Frank and his cronies may hear it (assuming he's really telling the truth. A stretch.) is because they write about it so often.

For Al Qaeda, Must-Read NYT?: "The Myth of a 'Myth Fostered By the Administration' on 9/11, Hussein Link
The Myth of a "Myth Fostered By the Administration" on 9/11, Hussein Link


Frank Rich's Sunday column begins with an excoriation of ineptitude over the rebuilding of Ground Zero, but soon reverts to Bush-bashing: "The myth fostered by the administration that Saddam Hussein conspired in the 9/11 attacks is finally dead and so, apparently, is the parallel myth that Iraqis were among that day's hijackers."

Never mind that Bush has never suggested Hussein was involved in 9/11, saying in September 2003: "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."

The lefty journalist plague spreads!

What is it about leftist writers that compels them to insert a political slam into everything they write? And how can any reporter covering the Indy 500 not know that, not only Indy cars, but ALL cars sold in the USA haven't had carburetors in years? Oh, it's the NYT. Nevermind.....

For Al Qaeda, Must-Read NYT?: "Female's Indy 500 Finish Highlights Bush's Ignorance of Women

Sports columnist Selena Roberts nabs a front-page Sports section pole position Monday with her piece on Indianapolis 500 racecar driver Danica Patrick, who finished fourth in Sunday's race, the best-ever finish for a female driver. But Roberts spins the feel-good piece into a diatribe against Bush and in support of Title IX, a liberal law Roberts has championed in previous columns.

In "A Heady Apex, But Is a Dead End Just Up Ahead?" Roberts writes: "No Indy driver was under more scrutiny, no rookie racer was the object of more camera lenses. And yet Patrick refused to play the runaway bride as she withstood the pressure to take a remarkable fourth-place finish despite a pit-stop stall, a spin and a few dinks. Does this performance make her the aberration next door, or an average gal who digs a steady diet of carbs, as in carburetors?"
(Actually, the Indy 500 has been carburetor-free since 1964, in favor of more efficient fuel-injection systems.)

More objectionable than Roberts' apparent ignorance of auto racing is the next line: "It is very conceivable that the gap-toothed David Letterman understands what revs a woman's engine more than the gender-gapped George W. Bush." (Letterman cosponsored Patrick's racing team.)

Road money could benefit Muskegon

If the City of Muskegon would keep their stop lights coordinated, much time and gasoline would be saved. And the cost is minimal. But that would be too much to ask. We need to spend millions $$ before we're interested. Bummer.
Road money could benefit Muskegon: "But it would pay for studies in each area to determine the need for interchanges; property that might be needed for eventual interchange construction; or short-term street design improvements to help alleviate congestion, Dey said. "

Survey: Michigan schools expect cuts to continue

Notice that nowhere does anyone mention the "phrase we dare not speak". Teacher compensation. That's salary, benefits AND retirement cost. No, we can't go there. Everyone knows, for sure, that teachers are underpaid. If that's true, why can't we, the people who pay the bills, see exactly what the true costs of teachers and administrators really is.

Survey: Michigan schools expect cuts to continue: "The survey found that 51 percent of school districts expect they will have to lay off employees next school year. About 81 percent said they plan to reduce staff by attrition.
About 65 percent of districts said they would reduce spending on supplies and services. About 79 percent said they would have to dip into their fund balances, a type of savings account, to help pay bills next school year. "

Muskegon Air Fair 2005

The early reservations are up 40% over last year! Saturday's Flight Line Club is already sold out. Get movin' Muskegon if you want to see the best Air Show in the Midwest.
Muskegon Air Fair 2005

The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

This company is in real trouble! Miserable management and suicidal union members. Great combination!
The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week: "Stocked with a hefty supply of last year's vehicles, General Motors (GM:NYSE - news - research) unveiled a new sales strategy this week. Like many of GM's previous strategies, the one unveiled Wednesday calls for steep discounts.

Unlike the other plans, however, this one has bigger implications. It kicked off with a press release reading, 'GM is Proud to Invite America to be Part of its Family.'

Sound like a little too much commitment? Not to worry. The idea is to give buyers preferential employee-discount rates and simplified pricing.
'We firmly believe that once consumers have the opportunity to drive a GM vehicle, they'll know what we, and millions of loyal GM customers, already know about the value represented by the cars and trucks that we build,' said GM marketing exec Brent Dewar.
You can't blame GM for trying something new. The company posted a 12% sales drop for May. Earlier, it reported a huge first-quarter loss that led to several recent trips to the bond-rating junkyard, as analysts fretted over the company's pension obligations and financial position.
Yes, sounds like just the sort of big happy family everyone is itching to join. "

The one single, constant.........

... in dying American cities is the belief that county, state, or federal funding ("free money") and/or corporate charity is their only hope for growth. Of course, that fiscal intoxicant is as false an answer as alcohol or drugs to a human addict. The major difference between the individual junkie and our what our misguided political bosses (and their enablers in the media) do to our community is the scale of the destruction. Oh yeah. Dying cities also think that increasing taxes on businesses is a great idea.

Our nation feels a special sense of loss on this day

The Gang of 3 gets it right this time. Good show!
Chronicle Editorial
Our nation feels a special sense of loss on this day: "Our nation feels a special sense of loss on this day
Monday, May 30, 2005
Memorial Day. The name itself explains the special purpose of the day: to honor the dead who gave their lives in defense of our nation. We honor, too, those who have served and are no longer among us, either through the ravages of wounds or age.
Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, red states and blue -- all of us fortunate enough to be alive and free today -- should be united by a common respect for, and a bond shared with, these fallen defenders. All Americans, wherever they stand along the divide that separates us on the great issues of the day, know full well that we are able to argue about such things only because we have the freedom to do so.
That freedom has been dearly won by those who have given everything in defense of it. "

Turkey Power!

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "William the Conqueror Is Turning in His Grave
'Norman Man Attacked by Turkeys'--headline, Associated Press, April 3"

At least 11 killed in Pakistan attack, riot - South and Central Asia - MSNBC.com

Ok. Let me get this straight. al-Qaida murderers bomb a mosque and the mob burns down a KFC and kill 6 of their own citizens? And the American left tells us to focus on "abuses of Abu Ghraib". Yeah, right.

At least 11 killed in Pakistan attack, riot - South and Central Asia - MSNBC.com: "KARACHI, Pakistan - A mob angered by an al-Qaida-linked suicide bombing in a Shiite mosque set a KFC restaurant on fire in overnight rioting, killing six employees and bringing the day's overall death toll to 11, police said Tuesday."

Arthur Anderson verdict thrown out!!!

Wow! They're not guilty...... well, not so fast my friend. The Supremes through out the guilty verdict because the first judge gave the jury improper directions. The case will likely be retried. Let's see how the media plays the real story. I'm not too hopeful.....

That New Youk accent!

I'm hearing more folks with that New York/Brooklyn accent on local radio and TV commercials. Don't those advertising folks realize that accent is a turn off to most mid-westerners? They call our part of the USA "fly-over-country" and still expect us to "listen up" when they want our attention.

Our next US Senator?

Keith Butler. Republican. Black! From Detroit!
Very interesting and competant man. He's the leader so far...

gas prices down=no headlines

Golly! Gas prices are down and The Chronicle doesn't have it on the front page. Amazing. Maybe it's in there somewhere.....
I guess we'll have to wait till Georgie is gone until we can some good news reported by The Gang of Three.(G3)

They really do hate us!

The eastcoaster media types do.
This is stunning. The contempt that this East-coaster exhibits an excellent insight into how the liberals in the elite media view things they know nothing about. Toby Keith and bad dressers! If only they ruled the world.....

'Sunday Money' and 'Full Throttle': Nascar Nation - New York Times:
"For a certain segment of the population, Nascar's raid on American culture -- its logo festoons everything from cellphones to honey jars to post office walls to panties; race coverage, it can seem, has bumped everything else off television; and, most piercingly, Nascar dads now get to pick our presidents -- triggers the kind of fearful trembling the citizens of Gaul felt as the Huns came thundering over the hills. ..... stock-car racing represents all that's unsavory about red-state America: fossil-fuel bingeing; lust for violence; racial segregation; run-away Republicanism; anti-intellectualism (how much brain matter is required to go fast and turn left, ad infinitum?); the corn-pone memes of God and guns and guts; crass corporatization; Toby Keith anthems; and, of course, exquisitely bad fashion sense.
.......No other sport is so captivating to so many yet so utterly uncaptivating to so many others. If the latter aren't repulsed by the deep-fried spectacle of a Nascar event, with its schizo mix of beery loutishness and Promise Keeper piety, then they're bored stiff by the racing itself. Stock-car racing is, it's true, a competitive variation on commuter traffic: it involves a bunch of sedans ferociously trying to get to the front of the line, making it no different, fundamentally, from Friday afternoons on the West Side Highway. This is what irks the detractors -- the only thing worse than being in traffic, they contend, is watching it -- yet, paradoxically, makes up a major chunk of its appeal. The cars the drivers pilot -- modified Chevy Monte Carlos, Ford Tauruses, Pontiac Grand Prix -- are not so different from the cars Nascar fans use daily to pick up their groceries, shuttle their kids and get themselves to work....
Read the whole thing.

Force Rumsfeld to defend every new base closing

Jeepers, the Chronicle's Gang of Three thinks that the Sec. Def and the Joint Chiefs don't nothin' 'bout base closings. The Chronicle's Military geniuses are "stunned". Maybe they could use some up front experience honing their skills on the front lines in Iraq?
Force Rumsfeld to defend every new base closing: "Force Rumsfeld to defend every new base closing
Thursday, May 19, 2005
One might have thought that four rounds of stateside military base closings -- in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 -- would have been enough for the Pentagon to achieve the efficiency and streamlining it needed.
But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants more, having just proposed closing 33 major bases, including Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, the Groton (Conn.) Submarine Base and America's oldest but still highly capable Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine. All of these facilities represent major parts within the strategic core of U.S. military power. For America's Secretary of Defense to recommend these bases closed without a whimper from the Joint Chiefs of Staff is just stunning.
So debate, as it should, will be intense over this latest list of proposed closures as they are reviewed by the independent Base Realignment and Closure Commission before being presented to President Bush for approval in September.
Take Portsmouth, for example, an installation the Navy just cited as having 'consistently and superbly performed their mission while establishing a phenomenal record of cost, schedule, quality and safety performance.' Obviously Navy ships, from small frigates to nuclear-power aircraft carriers, are incredibly costly and complex, and must be maintained and upgraded in order to fill their mission reliably. Closing bases like Portsmouth narrows the list of experienced shipyards to a tenuous few. These are vital assets.
The Groton submarine base could serve as another example of how the nation's strategic defense stands in danger of being compromised for what appear to be dubious savings. Groton's irreplace"

Timing stoplights

Communities that don't do it will suffer. Muskegon and Muskegon Hgts are the worst offenders. People will avoid downtowns where traffic is stupidly planned.

King of the Hill

Hank Hill quote:
"Newsweek, not in this house"
Gotta love it!

Katie Curic on saving gasoline!

On the Today Show, the perky one tells us all how she used to keep her windows opened when driving to save on gas, rather than use the car air conditioner. Yeah, right. How dumb does Her Perkiness think we are? Oops, Good Morning America just passed Today in the ratings.

Walmart story

I was shopping at Walmart on Sherman when I heard this endering cellphone conversation by a jumbo mother with her 5 kids in tow:"are you out of jail yet honey?
Gotta love the experience!

CC Valedictorians

Congratulations to the 6 valedictorians and 2 (3.99) salutorians of this year's Muskegon Catholic Central graduation class. But isn't it a sad commentary that 8 students out of the relatively small class got 100% on everything for 4 years running? It's either that kids are getting a whole lot smarter or the dumbing down of our schools. Gee, I wonder what businesses who hire young folks would say......

Arabs blame Jews!

This is like blaming McDonalds because you're fat. And still eating 7 Big Macs a week.
Power Line: "Getting it backwards
The UN Development Project has released its 2004 report on Arab development. It finds that a good portion of the blame for the Arab world's lack of progress lies in the creation of Israel 57 years ago, and in the support by the U.S. for Israel's existence since then (our presence in Iraq hasn't helped either). That's right -- 300 million Arabs live under oppression because 5 million Israeli Jews live in freedom, supported by the U.S. "

Chronicle SOLD!

Nugent

Posted by Hello

The end of Television

News Forum Home Page: "
The end of analog TV
MSNBC, by Michael Rogers Original Article
Posted By: Photoonist - 4/25/2005 3:06:56 PM Post Reply
Depending on the outcome of discussions in Congress, television as we know it may end at exactly midnight Dec. 31, 2006. That�s the date Congress targeted, a decade ago, for the end of analog television broadcasting and a full cutover to a digital format. If enforced, that means that overnight, somewhere around 70 million television sets now connected to rabbit ears or roof-top antennas will suddenly and forever go blank, unless their owners purchase a special converter box. "

Chronicle weather depression!

Leave it to The Chronicle to find the down side of everything.
Too-nice weather has some downsides
Saturday, April 16, 2005
By John S. HausmanCHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
It's official: The first two weeks of April were the warmest ever in Muskegon.
And one of the sunniest and driest. Unfortunately for firefighters, the dryness is expected to continue at least until the middle of next week in most places.
You've heard of too much of a good thing? Maybe this is it.






For April 1-14, Muskegon's average daily temperature -- that's the midpoint between each day's high and low -- was 51.8 degrees, breaking the previous early-April record of 51.7 degrees in the first two weeks of 1895, according to the National Weather Service's Grand Rapids office.
The "normal" average temperature for April 14 in Muskegon is 44 degrees.
And so far this month, Muskegon has received only a trace of rain, recorded on April 7. The last measurable rain was March 31, when Muskegon got a paltry 0.04 inch, and the last decent drenching was March 30, when we got a half-inch.
Meteorologist Mark Sekelsky said above-normal temperatures will continue through next week with highs at least in the 60s each day, possibly hitting 70 degrees Monday (the average high for April 15 is 54 degrees).
Other than a slight chance of scattered rain Sunday night, the first appreciable chance of showers or thunderstorms is expected to be Tuesday night, with 30 to 40 percent probability of rain each day from then into next weekend, Sekelsky said. "It looks like in most places next week we'll be seeing a shower or thunderstorm," he said. "We could certainly use the rainfall. It's been very dry."
That gets no argument from Muskegon County firefighters, who have been dealing with a rash of grass fires and expect to see more before the rains come.
"It's extremely dry," said Robert Grabinski, Muskegon Township's deputy fire chief. "Any kind of wind at all, and even a little campfire gets away from somebody and gets going really good. We advise people not to burn."
The state has imposed a ban on burning brush, and firefighters are asking people to refrain from recreational fires -- even in small backyard firepits. A gust of wind could start a grass fire, and Muskegon Township had exactly that happen last week, Grabinski said, leading to the loss of two neighbors' backyards, a snowblower and other equipment stored in garages.
"Until we get some significant rain that starts greening things up, it's best that they do no fires," Grabinski said. "I look to be pretty busy this weekend."
Some people have even started watering lawns and flowers, unusual for mid-April. But a local nurseryman says that's not necessary.
"They don't really need it," said Wally Weesies, owner of White Lake Nursery Inc. "It's plenty early. The grass is still in a semi-dormant state. It's OK to water, but it's not necessary," Weesies said.
The same goes for spring flowers, he said. "It's not an emergency to water them yet; it's OK to," Weesies said. More important, he said, is to clean up flower beds, cutting off old perennials and sprinkling a little fertilizer on in preparation for when the rains do come.
© 2005 Muskegon Chronicle. Used with permission

Muskegon bidding

MLive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "City sets policy on local vs. out-of-town bids
Friday, April 15, 2005By Robert C. Burns
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
The city of Muskegon's somewhat vague standard on the selection of local vs. out-of-town bidders has been solidified into a formal policy.
The policy gives notice to potential bidders that the city commission may give the nod to local suppliers or contractors if the local bidder comes within 1 percent of the lowest nonlocal bid.
This assumes the bids in question are deemed 'responsible,' while 'local' is defined as a company with a business location within the city limits.
While not absolute, the new policy gives potential bidders advance warning that local preferences are a possibility, all other things being equal.
'Before people spend money putting a bid package together, there should be absolutely no question about the criteria we are using,' said Commissioner Larry Spataro, who has advocated setting a definite policy and sticking to it.
Another aspect of the new policy gives the commission more latitude in purchases or construction contracts expected to exceed $1 million. In such cases, 'the city commission will be consulted on whether local preference may apply, prior to soliciting bids.'
City commissioners have split over the question of whether to award contracts or purchases based solely on the low bid, or to give added preference to companies that pay city taxes, hire and buy materials locally.
The most recent flareup occurred when the commission voted 4-3 to accept the second-lowest bid of Jackson-Merkey Contractors of Muskegon for a street paving project, rather than the lowest bid, submitted by a Ludington firm.
For several years, commissioners have been loosely following an unwritten guideline calling for l"

Urban League

MLive.com's Printer-Friendly Page: "Imagine Muskegon without league's help
Friday, April 15, 2005By Clayton Hardiman
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Every Christmas, we're treated to the nightmare scene in the sentimental classic film 'It's a Wonderful Life,' where George Bailey, desperate and suicidal, is escorted through the horrific mess the world would have become if he had never been born.
Today, we in Muskegon are forced to envision a similar scenario: Life without the Urban League.
In the film, George's idyllic hometown Bedford Falls has become a garish Babylon of vice and corruption. Every life George would have touched has been transformed for the worse.
The people he would have known are all suspicious, hostile and joyless. Some are insane or dead.
'You've been given a great gift, George,' his odd little guardian angel tells him, 'a chance to see what the world would be like without you.'
Some gifts, it seems, are almost more than we can handle.
Now we've been asked to imagine such a gift in real life. We have to envision Muskegon the last 55 years minus a proliferation of programs for employment assistance, education and health awareness.
We are asked to envision a Muskegon without youth employment training. We're asked to envision a Muskegon without sickle cell counseling, hypertension screening, home mortgage education and advocacy for the marginalized.
We are asked to envision a Muskegon without an Urban League.
All of this is a tremendous leap of the imagination -- not because losing those programs seems so unlikely but because it already seems so real.
Most of those programs have already disappeared, largely because of a financial crisis that has cost the non-profit community service agency most of its staff and now threatens its fu"

The American Spectator-liberalism

George is grumpy at the left. Read it all.

The American Spectator: Pie in the Sky Liberals
By George Neumayr

In the 1960s, radicals began their march through the institutions of American society. They marched through them, stayed long enough to find the exits, and now end up right back where they started: on the outside, in a state of powerless, clawing anger, hurling pies at 'establishment' figures and wishing death upon congressmen and presidents.

The left's feelings of impotent 1960s-style rage can be measured in Drudge Report headlines, such as: 'Website sells 'Kill Bush' T-Shirts,' and in Drudge's now weekly links to stories about pundits pied by liberals who clearly regard their victims as members of a new establishment. Like children who hurl their baby food as a form of protest, liberals in a state of infantile, frustrated rationality are reduced to tossing sugary and oily products at Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan and stomping their feet at Ann Coulter.

The games AARP plays

Watch out for these lying socialists. Try http://usanext.com/ instead.

The games AARP plays - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - April 14, 2005: "The games AARP plays

By John Carlisle
In the ongoing debate over Social Security, AARP may claim that its mission is to defend the elderly, but its use of manipulative polls and inaccurate ads to needlessly frighten the public about the merits of reform raises serious questions about its tactics.
Moreover, while AARP says private stocks are too risky for individuals to invest their retirement savings, the multibillion organization has no problem making millions off those same 'risky' investments.
As evidence for the alleged unpopularity of private accounts backed by President Bush, AARP cites a poll it conducted in March that showed that 59 percent of the organization's 35 million members oppose the proposal. However, the poll is suspect because it was framed in such a way as to maximize a negative response. For example, 29 percent of AARP members initially said they liked the idea of diverting up to $1,300 into private accounts. These respondents were then asked a series of loaded questions, such as 'What if you heard that creating private accounts out of Social Security funds will put more of your retirement savings at risk?' This was followed up with language such as private accounts 'will create winners and losers' and 'could mean cuts in everyone's Social Security benefits.' Not surprisingly, most of the respondents who supported private accounts changed their minds. ...
AARP plays other games with polls to get the answers it wants. One poll reported that the general public is opposed to private accounts by a margin of 48 percent to 43 percent. However, the poll was skewed to maximize the representation of demographic groups that tend to oppose the plan. ....."

An American soldier

Thank God for these fine soldiers.
OpinionJournal - Extra: "BY GREG MOORE
Tuesday, April 12, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
SARANAC LAKE, N.Y.--There are no longer generators running, or armored vehicles rumbling, or mortars exploding, and the roar of the silence is deafening to me. What I hear at night now is the gentle breaths released from the perfect lips of my sons. The same lips that I cannot kiss enough. The lips that make my eyes fill with tears every time they touch my cheeks."

"Islamic teachings"

These are the people that the American Left support?
Power Line: "Hamas initially denied any link to the murder, but later admitted that the assailants belonged to one of its groups. It also admitted that the murderers were responsible for cracking down on men and women who defy Islamic teachings by appearing in public together."

The oops list

The oops list

We elected these people?

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "As Rep. Maxine Waters said at an abortion rally last April, 'I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.'"

Cool place to murder someone?

Watch out if your spouse invites you to this place!
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "Our Own Private Idaho
Blogger Orin Kerr calls our attention to a law review article by Brian Kalt, who points out that U.S. law provides a way to get away with murder (or any other crime): Do it in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park.
This is possible, according to Kalt, because of an oddity in the federal courts' jurisdiction: Yellowstone is under federal jurisdiction, which means state law does not apply. An 1894 law defines the federal District of Wyoming as including the whole park, including the portions in Idaho and Montana, which means that any crime committed within the park would be tried in federal district court in Wyoming.
But here's the rub: The Sixth Amendment stipulates that a jury in a federal trial must be 'of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.' That means that if you commit a crime in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, the jury must consist of people who live in both Idaho and the Wyoming District, which is to say, the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, whose population is zero. Thus if you insist on a jury trial, which is your constitutional right, the government will be unable to try you. (The Montana portion of the park has an adult population of 41, making it at least theoretically possible to assemble a jury for a crime committed there.)
Going on a killing spree in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone may be easier said than done, though. After all, the population is zero, so who would you kill? This rules out lots of other crimes, too. There are no houses to burgle, and we're pretty sure there are no liquor stores to rob.
If your ambition is to commit the perfect crime, then, best to set your sights lower. How about this: Load your pickup truck full of mattresses and drive to the Idaho corner of Yellowstone

MSU must beware of underdog - 3/20/05

Wrong again!
MSU must beware of underdog - 3/20/05: ", March 20, 2005
March Madness
MSU must beware of underdog
Spartans face tiny Vermont, a Cinderella team riding a gust of incredible emotion.
By Bob Wojnowski / The Detroit News"

Canada to Heart Patients: Sorry If You Die Before We Can Treat You

Coming to the USA soon?
Maybe this is the reason we don't hear the MSM lionizing the fabulous "Canadian single payer health care system"?
Canada to Heart Patients: Sorry If You Die Before We Can Treat You

Lance in Iraq

A view into the mind of the left.

Lance in Iraq: "''I think all war is wrong,'' said Mary McKinney of Nashville. McKinney had her three children with her, including her 2-year-old son in a sling on her chest.
What the article does not mention is that she spoke her words in English, not German or Russian. However, the language of naivete is grating in any dialect.
Liberals today are isolationists in an era when that's simply not feasible. We tried it and we got Pearl Harbor. We tried it again and we got 9/11. Worse, they think America incapable of moral action on the world stage yet believe US citizens should fund it through the corrupt, immoral UN. Once upon a time, the left claimed to be for human rights. No more. They have thrown down the banner and President Bush, to his great credit, picked it up.
UN Parody Update: Annan: Suicide Bombers Deserve Prison
Posted by Lance Frizzell at March 20, 2005 06:28 AM "

PEW

Funny how the MSM kinda forgot to "front page" this.

THE STENCH FROM PEW
Reports in The Post last week con cerning the political activities of the supposedly above-the-fray Pew Charitable Trusts were, in a word, shocking.
A former program officer for Pew, Sean Treglia, was caught on videotape bragging about how the foundation worked behind the scenes to create the false impression that there was a 'mass movement' afoot clamoring for campaign-finance reform.
The intent: to hoodwink Congress.
It worked.
Pew did this in the run-up to the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 � a.k.a. McCain-Feingold � by spreading around more than $40 million to grass-roots front groups like Common Cause, the Campaign Finance Institute and the inaptly named Center for Public Integrity.
Pew wasn't alone in its efforts.
Several other major liberal foundations � including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Institute � colluded with Pew to give $123 million between 1994 and 2004 to promote the regulation of political speech.
But Pew's role in the effort seems to have been particularly insidious.
'Having been on the Hill, I knew that . . . if Congress thought this was a Pew effort, it'd be worthless. It'd be 20 million bucks thrown down the drain,' Treglia says at one point in the tape.
'So, in order, in essence, to convey the impression that this was something coming naturally from outside the Beltway, I felt it was best that Pew stay in the background.'
'By law, the grantees always have to disclose. But I always encouraged the grantees never to mention Pew,' Treglia says. 'Did we push the envelope? Yeah. Were we encouraged internally to push the envelope? Yeah . . . We stayed within the letter, if not the spirit, of the law.'
We'd be loathe to ac"

Don, cought in the act!

don

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ubiquitious

Not unlike the idiotically overused "gravitas", when the MSM learns a new word, they use it to death.

Bright idea, dumb reaction -Harvard idiocy

A major reason for the failure of black communities to experience the success of comparable "white/brown" communities is that too many of their leaders think this way.

Bright idea, dumb reaction - Comment - Times Online: " I WILL NEVER forget the moment when one of my Harvard classmates raised her hand and objected to the use of the term "black market", which she found unacceptably demeaning to her race. It was a Philip Roth moment, a militant provocation and the economics professor ducked. He was black too, and despised political correctness. But after a pause he said: "We will use the term "shadow market". And we used it, for the whole bloody semester. For in that bastion of censorship that was Harvard in the early 90s, no one dared to challenge anything labelled, however absurdly, as "discrimination".

What's Left? Shame. Today's "Must Read"

What's Left? Shame. (washingtonpost.com): "Those who claimed, with great certainty, that Arabs are an exception to the human tendency toward freedom, that they live in a stunted and distorted culture that makes them love their chains -- and that the notion the United States could help trigger a democratic revolution by militarily deposing their oppressors was a fantasy -- have been proved wrong. "

Too funny!

Just another of the wonders of the "net". Enjoy.
from MLIVE.com

5896. Funny... Children's Science Test. by EllenJ, 3/18/05 9:30 ET
Email received which will hopefully add a smile to your day:
These are real answers given by children.
Q: Name the four seasons.A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes largepollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tendsto flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, andnature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: What are steroids?A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.A: Premature death.
Q: What is artificial insemination?A: When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (e.g., abdomen.)
A: The body is consisted into three parts---the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity.The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominalcavity contains the five bowels, A, E, I, O, and U.
Q: What is the fibula?A: A small lie.
Q: What does "varicose" mean?A: Nearby.
Q: Give the meaning of the term "Caesarean Section"A: The Caesarean Section is a district in Rome.
Q: What does the word "benign" mean?'A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Click to view these responses
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AARP=Democrat Party

If there was ever a better proof that AARP is an arm of the democrat party, I'd like to see it. Here the AARPsters recycle the lie that "private accounts in Social Security will not solve the system's solvency problem." That is right out of the democrat handbook. No one, not Bush, not anyone in the administration or anyone who supports SS reform has ever stated that private accounts would "solve" the system's problems. They have said and continue to say that privatizing part of the system is only one step toward solvency.
Also note that the left/AARP aren't interested in a SS "lock-box" any more. The private accounts are the "lock-box", a place where the thieving government can't take your money away. The Gore/AARP lock gives your money to the govt. for "safe keeping". Some lock box. Jeeze.


In a message dated 3/18/2005 12:25:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, miaarp@aarp.org writes:
Legislative Update
Please call the local office of your member of Congress during the period from March 19-31. Tell them respectfully that proposals to create private accounts in Social Security will not solve the system's solvency problem. Indeed, these accounts would hurt the system because the money carved out will have to be replaced with more taxpayer dollars to pay benefits. The "solution" should not be worse than the problem.
Below you will find your local Congressional Representative's offices. Please find your member's number and place a call. Thanks!
Bill Knox
Associate State Director for Government Affairs
AARP Michigan

billions at risk

Threads2

This is scary!

I always wondered about the AA Airbus 310 crash right after 9-11. The A310 uses "fly by wire" controls, meaning that the pilots input is interpreted by computers to control the airplane. The "experts" concluded that pilot error caused the crash. But if the pilots moved the flight controls too violently, why did the programming of the computer allow those pilot inputs to destroy the airplane? Lot's of political input into this one. I'm not a conspiracy buff, but this is beginning to look like a major cover up. Keep an eye out for more on this story.


Instapundit.com -: "March 14, 2005
HMM. I'D MISSED THIS STORY:
At 35 000 feet above the Caribbean, Air Transat flight 961 was heading home to Quebec with 270 passengers and crew. At 3.45pm last Sunday, the pilot noticed something very unusual. His Airbus A310's rudder -- a structure over 8m high -- had fallen off and tumbled into the sea. In the world of aviation, the shock waves have yet to subside. . . .
One former Airbus pilot, who now flies Boeings for a major United States airline, told The Observer: 'This just isn't supposed to happen. No one I know has ever seen an airliner's rudder disintegrate like that. It raises worrying questions about the materials and build of the aircraft, and about its maintenance and inspection regime. We have to ask as things stand, would evidence of this type of deterioration ever be noticed before an incident like this in the air?'
He and his colleagues also believe that what happened may shed new light on a previous disaster. In November 2001, 265 people died when American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus A300 model which is almost identical to the A310, crashed shortly after take-off from JFK airport in New York. According to the official report into the crash, the immediate cause was the loss of the plane's rudder and tailfin, though this was blamed on an error by the pilots."

Charter school seniors may leave campus at lunch

Can someone tell me why students are allowed off campus at all during the day? According to the article, this policy passed without parental support. Why did the Board support it? The negatives of this policy are obvious: drug, alcohol, smoking abuse. Kids coming back to class late, or the temptation to not return at all. Dangerous driving in a very busy area. Why allow it? Or is this just another case of journalistic sophistry?

Charter school seniors may leave campus at lunch:
Monday, March 14, 2005
By Teresa Taylor Williams
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Similar to their peers in nearby traditional schools, seniors at Muskegon Technical Academy are now free to leave the charter school during lunch period.
But their new freedom is for only one day per week, and they must adhere to stipulations given by school officials.
Earlier this month, the school board reluctantly approved open campus lunch for 12th-graders who are passing all classes and have parent permission and no suspensions this school year.
The idea of allowing the high-schoolers at the sixth- through 12th-grade school to leave during lunch period was discussed last fall, and board members along with Superintendent Barbara Stellard were not in favor of it because of lack of parental support. "

Kyoto costs ballooning, Canada cabinet ministers warned

No surprise. The old bait and switch has been played on voters of all countries so often it's not even news anymore. Any bets that you won't see this story anywhere else except the blogosphere? Kyoto is bad enough. Now the Canadian economy is going to get creamed because they've grown faster than some bureaucrat predicted.

The Globe and Mail: Kyoto costs ballooning, cabinet ministers warned: "OTTAWA -- The full cost to Ottawa of meeting Canada's targets for fighting global warming under the controversial Kyoto accord could exceed $10-billion, senior federal cabinet ministers have been warned.
That's twice what the federal government has budgeted so far for Kyoto."

Read the whole article.

Squirrel blogging! Muskegon Protection racket!

Don Squirreleone


Well, I've finally given into a force that refuses to be denied. Over the years, all types of squirrels have been invading and even eating my birdfeeders. I thought I had tried everything, squirrel-proof feeders, vaseline on the feeder poles and I even bought a BB gun to try to dissuade my varmit neighbors from overindulging at my free food-bank.
Nothing worked until I met Don Squirreleone. Don, a local red squirrel gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. I noticed that Don was the loudest and most obnoxious of my rodential invaders. He spent an inordinate time perched on my deck, staring directly at me, chirping squirrel challenges to my manhood and then climbing on and munching all over my feeders. I tried my usual defenses, even unloading all 13 BB shots into the woods as Don raced out of range and returned to taunt me as I spilled hundreds of BBs on my carpet. Quite often he even returned and mooned me.
But then I noticed something. The much larger grey, black and fox squirrels had disappeared from my feeders and the birds were returning! Whenever another would climb onto the deckrail, Don would chirp like a banshee-that-chirped and chase the intruder away.
It then all became clear. This was not just some run-of-the-mill rodent with panda bear affectations. This little red squirrel was "the Man". He owned the neighborhood. He ran the Show. Don, and Don alone, kept his bird feeders safe for birds.... and Don.
And I realized that I was powerless to challenge his primacy over the deck that I built with my own hands.
I'm now comfortable with my new status. I ladle out a halfcup of premium seed every few days or so for Don. The other squirrels are gone. My feeders are loaded with finches, cardinals, nuthatches etc. and life seems pretty good.
Dang, I gotta run. More seed needed on the deck. Don is mooning me again.

Don Corleone



Don Squirreleone staredown

Ferocious!

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