Congressman Jerry Weller made a decision last week and bailed on the most critical economic crisis the United States has faces since, perhaps, the Great Depression.
The Illinois Republican Congressman was the only member of the House of Representatives to cast no vote on the $700 billion bailout, according to the Sun-Times.
That’s right, Weller was the only one of 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to miss the vote.
A spokesman cited “a commitment to his family” as the reason for missing the vote.
Come on.
Republicans don’t deserve this seat.
In fact, State Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson might have to warm this seat up herself come November. It’s gone cold.
I respect Cubs fans, but I don’t get them at all. I’m convinced Wrigley will fall to the ground some day. The 500 level is a death trap.
Well, we won’t have to worry about baseball at Wrigley for a few more months now. The Dodgers swept the Cubbies, and that’s all there is to it.
According to the Tribune, the Cubs only led for 2½ innings for the entire series, leading 2-0 in Game 1 from the bottom of the second to the top of the fifth.
That’s more than a complete collapse.
What is it about this team that they can’t muster any energy at all for the playoffs? Who’s paying them to lose so remarkably?
I’ll put my “It’s Gonna Happen” sign away for another year.
Mr. Simpson faced 12 charges stemming from a September 2007 confrontation in a casino hotel room in which he and five cohorts departed with hundreds of items of sports memorabilia.
The items were in the possession of two memorabilia dealers, Bruce L. Fromong and Alfred Beardsley, who were led to believe a prospective buyer was coming to browse the goods. Instead, Mr. Simpson and his group burst into the room and, according to several witnesses, at least one gun was brandished.
O.J. won’t be hosting any parties for the jurors on this one.
The judge denied all post-verdict motions by Simpson’s attorney.
Joe Biden answered questions. Sarah Palin avoided them.
That about says it all.
Senator Biden was the only one to show a human face, choking up briefly:
“The notion that, somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to make it,” Mr. Biden said. “I understand as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They’re looking for help.”
Gov. Palin responded by talking policy, ignoring Biden’s remarks. Instead, she botched names:
Although Ms. Palin name-dropped several times, presumably to show fluency in foreign affairs, she did not always drop the right name. At one point, she referred to the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, as “McClellan.”
Biden took some pointed shots at John McCain:
Mr. Biden replied by linking Mr. McCain with Mr. Bush more crisply than he had done previously in the debate.
“The issue is how different is John McCain’s policy going to be than George Bush’s,” Mr. Biden said. “I haven’t heard how his policy is going to be different on Iran than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy is going to be different with Israel than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy in Afghanistan is going to be different than George Bush’s. I haven’t heard how his policy in Pakistan is going to be different than George Bush’s.
“It may be, but so far it is the same as George Bush’s,” he said.
Mr. Biden also turned tougher in the final half-hour after Ms. Palin had, several times, referred to Mr. McCain as a “maverick.”
“He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education — he has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college,” Mr. Biden said. “He’s not been a maverick on the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that generally affects the things that people really talk about.”
The last lines referenced must have been tough for Biden. He genuinely respects McCain, but I have no doubt that he believes what he said. John McCain is no maverick.
Palin also opined that the Constitution of the United States actually gives more power to the vice president.
Barack Obama is the true maverick waiting in the wings.
Now that the sideshow is over, we can return our focus the two central figures in this election: Barack Obama and John McCain.
We still question McCain’s judgment in choosing Palin. In the event of the “unthinkable,” would she serve us well as Commander-in-Chief?
Not at all — No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin. Once in office, they would both forget the poor and middle class, seizing more and more power like Mussolini at a garage sale.
I’d rather have Tina Fey in the Oval Office.
Senator Obama, sir, our country awaits your innauguration.
Cooper, who was shot by officers, was in “stable” condition at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
Several officers were conducting surveillance and waiting to serve a warrant at Cooper’s home in the 7900 block of South Clyde early Sunday when the suspect pulled up in a car, according to police.
Several sources said the officers announced their office and Cooper opened fire. He had two packets of drugs in his mouth — possibly cocaine — in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence, sources said. The suspect’s handgun was recovered at the scene, police said.
This is incredibly sad.
This is not the time for politics. This is not the time for ranting.
This is a time for silence - a profound pause - as we let this sink in. An officer is dead, and his family begins to feel the loss.
And the Chicago Police Department has lost a colleague. Every cop in the Chicagoland area has lost a brother.
Los Angeles–(TURNINGLEFT)– International Medical Corps (IMC) has been matched for the American Express Top 25 Members Project, ‘Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.’ The project was selected from 1,190 submissions nominated by American Express card members. As the organization matched to the project, IMC is eligible for a part of $2.5 million in funding. The project that receives the most votes from cardholders by September 29 receives $1.5 million; second $500,000; third $300,000, and fourth and fifth $100,000.
We need your help between now and September 29th. Voting is easy and doesn’t cost a thing! In just a click, you can save the lives of thousands of malnourished children. Click here to vote:
For severely malnourished children, we offer a step-by-step treatment program that gives them what they need to recover, including nutrient-dense food supplements like the peanut-based product, Plumpy’Nut. Our comprehensive monitoring system saves more than 90 percent of children being treated in our feeding centers. Being one of the Top 5 would mean our nutrition could reach more children around the world who need our help.
“As a mother of children who go to bed with a full stomach every night, it is heartbreaking to consider the millions of kids who do not have the nutrients their little bodies need to survive,” says Paige Strackman, who submitted the idea to American Express. “I hope this project will bring people to the same conclusion I have - we can solve malnutrition through nutrient-rich, ready-to-eat food. With enough votes from American Express card members, thousands of children’s lives can be saved.”
Hunger and malnutrition kill more people in the world than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. As food prices rise, this funding is even more critical. More people are being driven deeper into poverty trying to afford basic staples. Many have nothing to eat at all. Your vote makes it possible for fewer young lives to be lost because they do not have enough to eat.
“International Medical Corps is honored to have the opportunity to match Paige’s passion for this cause with our 24 years of experience in helping children in need,” said Rebecca Milner, Vice President of Institutional Advancement. “We are a vital lifeline for hundreds of thousands of children every year, saving more than 90 percent of the children we treat.”
Through nutrition programs that provide relief while creating sustainable solutions, International Medical Corps brings nutrition-rich, ready-to-eat food to some of world’s most food-insecure environments, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Chad, and Sudan. With a mission that focuses on training, International Medical Corps works to empower individuals and communities, providing education on how to treat malnutrition, identify warnings signs, and intervene before malnutrition worsens. Health care workers and parents are educated on proper diet and hygiene, and communities are equipped to grow their own food and reduce their vulnerability to rising prices.
Getting the word out to your friends and family makes a huge difference! Forward this link to a friend and you bring us that much closer to the $1.5 million to help malnourished children around the world!
International Medical Corps (IMC) is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs.
Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, IMC is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide.
By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, IMC rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
For what it’s worth, people on the left and right are all in a tizzy about a completely unscientific poll running on the PBS web site. So, have fun, I’m passing on to you to vote NO to Palin.
Here’s the email:
PBS is polling whether we support Palin and think she’s ready. So far, this PBS poll shows positive support for Palin. Let’s at least set one record straight! It takes @ 2 seconds. The far right has everyone signing on and voting….. we need to counter it. They ask no personal information, just yes, no, maybe.
Snopes.com gives this one an unqualified “True” rating:
Carol McCain
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.
She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969.
Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.
When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Today, she stands at just 5′ 4″ in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.
“My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens … it just does.”
In 1979 — while still married to Carol — he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: “I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is — deceit.”
“When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.”
“McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,” he said. “After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.”
Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential candidate, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel — even by the standards of modern politics.
She only opposed it in September 2007 after her final efforts to get $329 million more from Congress failed. Yet she kept the partial funding from Congress!
So when Palin repeatedly says “I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ on that bridge to nowhere,” she is repeatedly lying.
It is long past time for reporters to call Sarah Palin exactly what she is - a serial liar.
He stood stoic and silent as the verdicts were read.
It is now 
