Congrats to David Duval on his win at the British Open. Strange to see Tiger Woods' name bunched at 25th with such vaulted names as Eduardo Romero, Bob Estes and Joe Ogilvie. Even stranger to realize it's already been a year since I was at The Open.
"Documents that the Democratic Party and unions have sued to keep secret show that labor leaders had veto power over Democratic campaign plans in 1996 by virtue of their large donations and seats on state steering committees.
"While labor's support of Democrats is well known, the documents reveal a campaign strategy in which labor and party officials served side by side on committees that directed the Democrats' election activities in each state." (AP)
Where's this story in the major media? I found it buried on B5 of the Atlanta paper, and have yet to hear a peep by the news networks and cable organizations. If this were about the GOP it would be the lead story above the fold of the New York Times and Dan Rather would lead the 6 p.m. news with a headline screaming: "Documents Show Republicans Controlled by Big Corporations".
How juicy is the Gold Club trial in Atlanta, with the Feds trying a strip club owner for racketeering? A dismissed juror is suing to get back on!
Don Bailey, an alternate juror, was dismissed earlier this month by the judge, saying he did not want to hold up the long-running trial for one to three days after Bailey was hospitalized for cardiac tests. Bailey filed a federal lawsuit, demanding to be reinstated or compensated the $40-a-day juror fee until the trial is completed. In a brief hearing, U.S. District Judge Charles Moye dismissed Bailey's lawsuit as being without merit.
CBS News' liberal elitism is scary. They're finally unwrapping that self-proclaimed "we're objective" lie and officially admitting "we make the news and we'll report it as we care" by ignoring the Chandra Levy-Congressman Condit case for a full 80 days. And when they first brought up the story, it was about how the media had overblown everything!
Earlier, Dan Rather decided to emerge from pretending to be fair and balanced, online in his "Rather Reporting":
"While Washington and much of the nation's radio, television and press and Internet outlets titillate themselves and they hope you, with the latest rumors and speculation about what they believe is a 'sexual scandal,' and while President Bush is engaging in New York photo ops aimed at helping himself and his party politically with immigration-conscious voters, especially northeastern Catholics, it may be as good a time as any to ask: why isn't there at least equal attention being paid to what's happening to the world economy? Caution if not outright warning flags are up worldwide. This on-going and still developing story doesn't sell as well as sex, that's true. The belief that sexy, titillating rumor mill stuff may very well do better for ratings and circulation, in the short term, anyway. But where and when the highest standards are applied to what is important journalism and what is not? Can any reasonable person argue that what's happening with the global economy isn't more important and matters more to Americans from all walks of life?"
A politically incorrect caller to the Neal Boortz radio program speculated that Levy probably isn't dead at all. She is just on a road trip with friends, and being good little Democrats they have merely been watching only CBS News all along and have never seen that she was missing!
The latest Harris poll reveals 81 percent of Americans agree that Laura Bush has "improved the image of the first lady."
Did you know: The New York Court of Appeals recently made an "extraordinary, tyrannical decision," according to columnist Maggie Gallagher, that "Yeshiva University, a private, religious institution, cannot reserve its married student housing for married students without violating New York City's ban on discrimination on the basis of 'sexual orientation.'
"Is this tolerance? Is this live and let live? Or is this effort to use the courts to impose gay marriage a systematic, brutal, mean-spirited attempt by powerful elites to stigmatize and silence the majority of Americans and endanger our most basic institution? Let the debate begin."
A fan writing on the GoGrizzlies.com Web site suggested the Memphis NBA team be renamed the Humidity. That way, when Memphis beats Miami, the headline can read: "It's not the Heat, it's the Humidity." (The Commercial Appeal)
Veteran NBA player Charles Oakley on the waning skills in the league, a reason that has turned many (like me) off: "Just call it the college NBA. It's getting to be a joke. . . . Half the guys don't know the plays. They just want to dunk," Oakley said. "It's just like the ghetto."
After my trip to the U.K. last summer I realized that one of the idiocies of driving in America is that we use traffic lights for every intersection, when a roundabout/traffic circle would serve just as well in many less-driven areas, saving time for drivers and money for states.
A retired Superior Court judge in Georgia is addressing this issue, suing the Georgia Dept. of Transportation for not building more roundabouts -- circular intersections popular in Europe that eliminate the need for traffic signals or stop signs.
Dan Winn of Cedartown, Ga., charged in his suit that top DOT officials "have been totally derelict in their duty to understand and improve the highway system" by building roundabouts. Many signaled intersections, he said, are a "flagrant waste of money," and four-way stops, which he called "impediments to the proper moving of traffic," should have been universally converted to roundabouts long ago. Winn was granted a hearing before the House Transportation Committee last month and received a universally positive reception. In fact, after his hour-long presentation, the committee members resolved to ask the DOT to build some roundabouts as a demonstration project.
(Joey Ledford's column in the AJC contributed to the information for this report)
More on unions, specifically the NEA. The Wall Street Journal notes that while national and state teachers unions give more than 95% of their PAC contributions to Democrats, the NEA's membership is quite diverse politically. Only 48% of members are Democrats, 24% are Republicans and 28% are independents.
While 57% of members said they were more likely to vote for a candidate recommended by the national union, 27% said such an endorsement would make them less likely to vote that way. When asked if the NEA's materials on the 2000 elections presented candidates in a fair and balanced way, only 25% of GOP members and 36% of independents thought so. Indeed, only 62% of NEA Democrats thought the union's materials were fair and balanced.
Entertainment Weekly obit: "Opera star Gina Cigna, 101, an Italian national treasure for most of a century, of undisclosed causes, June 26, in Milan."
Not to be an insensitive jerk (I can do that in many other ways, though), but I'm going to go on a limb and say that she died because she was 101 years old.
Also from Ent. Weekly, news that Oscar-nominated Babe star James Cromwell, 61, and five others were busted July 3 after loudly urging diners at a Vienna, Va., Wendy's to eat elsewhere. In a statement released by PETA, Cromwell said Wendy's should stop "treating...animals like meat machines."
The food chain denies any impropriety. Except for that whole slaughter thing. What do you think hapens? They willingly leap off a cliff? Heck, even I'll concede that the cows and chickens are meat machines for my No. 4 meal. I wouldn't have it any other way. Now pass that Big Bacon Classic, please.
Am I the only person disturbed by the ESPN ad for the upcoming X Games (featuring skateboarders at a convenience store)? Since when did winking at vandalism become an acceptable promotional tool?
The late great Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
If Republicans are supposed to represent greed, then Democrats must be the avatars for unbridled lust.
After Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and now Gary Condit, Democrats think we should be embarrassed by Bob Barr?
Cleaning your house while your grandchildren are still visiting is like raking leaves in your yard in October.
Now that China has been awarded the 2008 Olympics, who will make the counterfeit T-shirts?
I bet the Chinese won't have chrome pickup trucks in their opening ceremonies.
Is a Russian astrophysicist called a cosmophysicist?
With all the hype about artificial intelligence, I still get excited when I come across examples of the natural kind.
I don't have to be a Hollywood lemming to dislike unhappy or destructive movie endings. Life is tragic enough without having my "entertainment" laced with the same.
Scientists have found a way to make babies without fathers. Guys, if women can just figure out a way to open jars, we're obsolete.
CBS interviews ten Democrats for every one Republican. Fox interviews one Democrat for every one Republican. Therefore, Fox News is a hotbed of right-wing bias.
Homer quote: "Son, a woman is a lot like a... a refrigerator! They're about six feet tall, 300 pounds. They make ice, and... um... Oh, wait a minute. Actually, a woman is more like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!"
Bart's chalkboard: I will not yell "She's Dead" at roll call.
Random site: The 80's Nostalgia Site -- Everything the child of the "decade of greed" desires to relive (and those they don't - see: parachute pants).