PSoTD

Take your own advice.

Don't keep putting it off, dude. Socialist doctors are notoriously inept at head-from-butt removal. And imagine the waiting list you could stuck on over there at the Corner

Be concerned. Be very concerned.

Kos just posted his first Reader Poll since John Edwards withdrew.

Jan 24
Edwards 42
Obama 41
HRC 9

Jan 30
Obama 76
HRC 11

The Minions of the Great Orange Satan have spoken!

I think there's an Andrew Sullivan joke in here somewhere.

Did John McCain trademark that phrase or something? Seems like I can't see a clip of him now without him throwing it around somewhere.

It is amazing how unusable that site has become. Some college ought to be teaching a course over the last 8 years of that web site called "Evolution of a Propaganda Site".

I just can't see how fogged bathroom mirrors rate a complaint at hotels. Short of spending what is likely to be a ridiculous amount of money for FOG-OFF, doesn't everyone's mirrors fog up when they shower? Is it really such a pain?

You'll have to check out the site to see what the events are. But I doubt we'll see the Benwa Ball Race on ESPN.

Walk Score is a cool pre-buy or pre-rent online research tool.

Some months of the year, I think of in terms of a holiday or event that occurs during that month. For example, December is close to synonymous with Christmas to me, and June still means the end of school, thanks to the old cycle of life.

What about February? Anything notable to you about February?

Swampland's Karen Tumulty experiences Life In These Internets.

Be careful with that thesaurus!

Hopefully he'll give Pennsylvania a positive spin...

Midstate pollster and political analyst G. Terry Madonna takes on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" Thursday night.

The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reports that Madonna taped a segment as a straight man with "Daily Show" correspondent Demetri Martin, a New York-based comedian, last week.

He deserved WAY better treatment than he got from the press as far as depth and totality of coverage was concerned, and if only the press had been less "Inside Hollywood" about their approach and more "Inside Governance", this election could have been completely different. But we can say that every election. I think the linked article does give Edwards due credit for his push of issues into the race - and into both parties' primaries. But now the question is, with Edwards seemingly out of the race, will those issues - and the approach of taking on existing powers, rather than dealing with them - disappear as well?

I hope not. The tendency amongst politicians to scorn Edwards' points about corporate political power as "populism", instead of admitting it as an electoral power reality, is very discouraging to me. Those scornful politicians are not intending, and will not eventually, solve the problems that come with the gross imbalance of power between institutions and the flexible mass of like-minded individuals. We need people who will tackle the issue of big money, big lobbying, and the sense of a "governing class". These other people, those who scorn that very idea? They need to be washed out of the system, as quickly as possible.

So cheers to you, John Edwards. Perhaps you have decided that the best way to push your planks at this point are to leave them available to the two remaining contenders, and let them show the voters how much they believe in them, rather than have them argue against you. You open the field this way. I would have liked to have voted for you, but I still intend to vote for the candidate that seems most aligned on my positions on corporate/institutional political power and the Iraq War. It's down to two, now.

Is it coincidence? Florida's primary delegates go to the candidate who derided "Bridge to Nowhere" the most in Florida's Republican Candidate Debate last Thursday:

Election Results:

1st - McCain
2nd - Romney
3rd - Giuliani

Number of mentions of the Bridge to Nowhere in last Thursday's debate in Florida:

McCain - 4 times
Romney - 1 time
Giuliani - 0 times

Note to Romney - start loudly hating on the Bridge to Nowhere if you want to win the nomination. Don't worry about making Hulk Angry.

If you can judge a company's future by the sheer desperation of lurching into a cheesy email spam strategy, then I think Countrywide should be deemed VERY desperate. I'm getting a couple of these cheesemails every day.

Like they have for hockey and soccer with Twin Ponds. Something like this...

But this is apparently not the time for a basketball/volleyball facility business model. Nolan Fieldhouse seems to be for sale, for less than what it was bought for...

I have a Kennedy story! In the summer of 79, my ex-girlfriend from high school was house-sitting in Georgetown for one of the Kennedy clan. (I think - but am not positive - it was Ted's wife Joan.) At the time, my ex was a college student in Pittsburgh and I was living in South Carolina. We hadn't had much contact but somehow or other she invited me to visit her there. I don't remember much about the visit except that she was staying on the top floor of the house and that I made her listen to the new "London Calling" album by the Clash more times than I'm sure she wanted to. No Kennedys were home and my ex and I did not reconcile. (Hi DeeDee, wherever you are!) End of Kennedy story.

Yesterday, Ted Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama and I'm kind of impressed. I don't remember much about John or Bobby other than their murders. The only real memory I have of JFK's assassination is an imprint of how upset all the adults were. However I have plenty of memories of Ted back before the right wing wackos turned him into a caricature (with some help from Ted). There was a time he actually did seem like he could take the torch from his older brothers and become President. I still have respect for the man because of the issues he has fought for in the Senate over the years. I don't know the inside baseball involved but it really surprised me to see him take sides against HRC. It makes me more comfortable with Obama. For me, this was an important endorsement.

A couple of mornings a week I stop at the AM/PM on the way into work and grab a bottle of orange juice. (I'm one of those few who don't like coffee.) The juice is $1.49 for a 16 oz. bottle but they are always running a "2 for $2.22" special. So I'm constantly getting pressured by the chicks at the cash register to buy the second bottle. I explain that I don't want two orange juices and that I can't drink it tomorrow because I'll be in a different office. But they won't let up. Hell, if I was after a deal I'd go to BJ's, buy a flipping case of orange juices and carry them around in my trunk!

Today they were at it again. Anybody want an OJ?

Don't forget to invite him to your Mardi Gras extravaganza!

Who knows when this will show up in the Harrisburg area, if ever, and what Comcast will charge for it, but it does sound like a big environment changer for the Internet...

Brian L. Roberts Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Comcast Corporation Keynote Remarks 2008 Consumer Electronics Show Las Vegas, NV January 8, 2008

...

RYAN: Wait a second – I know about “broadband,” of course, but not “wideband.” What’s that?

BRIAN: It’s cable's next big thing – a huge technological breakthrough called DOCSIS 3.0. It takes us to a whole new level of speed and bandwidth.

RYAN: So how does it work?

BRIAN: Today, when we deliver broadband, we’re using spectrum on our cable system that’s equivalent to one 6Mhz analog television channel. That lets us provide broadband speeds of up to twelve to sixteen megabits per second using our unique PowerBoost™ technology. Now, using DOCSIS 3.0, we can bond together four or more of those standard analog channels. This will let us deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second over the next two years.

Is it really necessary that 25 cable channels present the State of the Union address live?

It just seems like overkill.

Huckabee challenges Romney over fried chicken.

PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) – Mitt Romney's failure to eat fried chicken with the skin on is nothing short of blasphemy here in the South, according to GOP rival Mike Huckabee.

Romney, of Massachusetts, dug into a piece fried chicken at KFC while campaigning in Lutz, Florida on Saturday, but not before peeling off what most would consider the best part — the crispy skin.

It *is* the best part but damned if I eat the skin either.

The Republican candidates appear to have similar taste in music to PSoTD.

As Mitt Romney made his weeklong crisscross through Florida, his campaign aides put a few songs into heavy rotation: Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” - a favorite, by the way, of Hillary Clinton’s - and Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation.” The latter, said Florida campaign director Mandy Fletcher, was picked because “the idea is that there’s too much conversation in Washington, not enough doing. He’s a doer.”

Also frequently queued up on the portable stereo: Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Aint’ Seen Nothing Yet,” played so often that members of the traveling press corps, some of whom have been tailing Romney since Labor Day, have taken to wearily chanting the song’s refrain - “buh-buh-buh-baby” - while hunched over their laptops.

Giuliani made the score to the appropriately titled “Rudy” - a movie about a pint-sized Notre Dame football player overcoming the odds - a fixture throughout his campaign.

But this week, as polls showed Giuliani trailing frontrunners McCain and Romney, his campaign swapped out the stately instrumental at a recent event with the more dynamic “The Best of Both Worlds” - the Van Halen song, not the Miley Cyrus tune of the same title, Hannah Montana fans being presumably too young to vote.

“Music is a useful tool to instill emotion in a person,” said Shelton Berg, dean of the University of Miami Frost School of Music. “If you hit a demographic with a song that reminds them of a time in their lives, their aspirations, you plug into that in a powerful way.”

In a chat with reporters on the campaign’s Florida press bus, McCain admitted to a liking for ABBA.

“You can go everywhere, and it’s like, `Oh ABBA, I can’t stand them,’ but they happen to have sold more records than anybody,” McCain said.

His pick: “Take a Chance.”

No "Dream Weaver"?

Governor Knoll.

Last night we were having a last beer in a local establishment, four of us, all Dads, and one says to me:

"That's different, now that your kids are older..."

and I think it was the first time I had heard that. It was one of those moments where a different way to think about my (and our) situation was crystallized by someone else, and it stopped me a bit in my tracks.

Yes, we know our kids are "getting" older, and there's all these signs that have been coming up - giving away the toddler stuff that we've used for two children, the tiny desks, the little chairs, and now we're planning on repainting both kids' rooms this summer to replace the current "kiddy" images with something more tween-and-teen friendly.

But there's a difference between seeing your children as "getting older" and seeing them as "now older". Didn't know that before last night.

Let me go on record now, I think this effort by Technorati's David Sifry isn't going to be used much. At least legitimately:

In 3 months it will be only used by spammers, thank you very much David and Martin... One couldn't expect any less from you...

I dunno, I think the "creative" people at CNN that thought of and approved this dumbass diminution of the primary process ought to be included in the "Demotion Derby".

If this were a fifty percent African American country, Barack Obama would be our next President.

Frankly, the guy underwhelms me on substance but I don't watch television so I'm sure I'm missing out on his style points. Digby says it's all about the youth vote but I guess I'm not in touch with that demographic either.

I'll have no problem voting for Barack in November but I haven't decided yet who I'll be voting for in the primary.

If you had your choice of anything for breakfast this Sunday morning, what would it be?

Not much else to do down Craley way.

Police charged Toby Taylor, 37, of the 100 block of Oak Leaf Drive with involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. As of Thursday night, he was in York County prison in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Police said they responded to Taylor's home late Wednesday night in the Restless Oaks Village mobile home park for a reported electrocution that turned into a cardiac arrest.

Once there, police found Kirsten Taylor, 29, unconscious. She was taken to York Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 11:25 p.m., according to the county coroner's office.

Toby Taylor first told police his wife was shocked as she used a hair dryer, but later admitted he had lied, charging documents state.

"He said that they hook up clips to his wife's nipples and he plugs the cord into an electric strip and he shocks her," charging documents state.

Sad story especially if you read the comments.

Apparently they are some of the most sensitive wimps in any State Capitol. The public hurt their feelings!

Seriously, does the lobbying community want such crybabies working for them?

The New Pornographers performing the incredible "My Rights Versus Yours" on Letterman.

Under your wheels, the hope of spring
Mirage of loss, a few more things
You left your sorrow dangling
It hangs in air like a school cheer

Complex notes inside the chords
On every wall inflections carved
Deep as lakes and dark as stars
Remember we were the volunteers

(Ooooh) Courts knew this and nothing more
(Ooooh) Now it's my rights versus yours

Under your wheels, your hopeless reign
You fall too hard—we're up too late
We hang suspended from the heights
Until it's safer to walk here

Under your wheels, your chance is with
The easy call, the called-off search
The medicine, it still won't work
But there's dangerous levels of it here

(Ooooh) Same thing as the other time
(Ooooh) But now it's your rights versus mine

The truth in one free afternoon
The truth in one free afternoon

Under my wheels the chance is held
Gave me to save me from myself
Spectacles painted with my shaking hand

Fingers in paints, in paints we brought
Thinking we'd leave them when we're not
Flying the flags of new empires in rags

The new empire in rags
The truth in one free afternoon
A new empire in rags
The truth in one free afternoon
A new empire in rags
The truth in one free afternoon
A new empire in rags
The truth in one free afternoon

Under your wheels, the fits and starts
The time to dabble in the arts
To tease the packs of dogs in charge
But kid it's all wasted on me

Under your wheels, the hope of spring
Mirage of loss, a few more things
The medicine it still won't sing
But there's dangerous levels of it here

(Your rights over my rights now
We came to the right place
Your rights over my rights now
Your rights over my rights now
We came to the right place
Your rights over my rights now
Your rights over my rights now)

An outsider can look at this story and say, "If Hillary Clinton's political party, and Democratic Party candidates, cannot trust her to keep up her agreement, why should any voter trust her?"

She can say all she wants about disenfranchising voters in Michigan and Florida, and I agree with her to a point, but there was a time and a place to stake her position to that point, she didn't do it, and everyone else - including the voters of Michigan - acted accordingly based on the agreed rules. Either voters, and Democrats, can trust Hillary Clinton at her word, or they can't. It's up to her to prove it, one way or another. She's failing to prove trustworthiness here.

And it is a big one... in comments, write something interesting about Morgantown, Pennsylvania.

Why can't we bring back the Tweed Water Spaniel?

It's strange - I guess I've just never thought about how humanity not only bred animals into specific breeds, but also didn't allow them to breed, causing their "extinction".

From Bub56

Who keeps whispering "Raise taxes"? Is it subliminal Republican advertising? Is it some sort of Kevin Nealon inspired effort, saying one thing but saying the truth in the middle?

Who is the Tax Whisperer?

They're perfectly harmless. I think.

At which point Charles Krauthammer will mock them. Consistent ignorance is voter bliss!

I bet it wasn't hot tubs.

It may not be bin Laden, or Al Qaeda, or even Hillary Clinton. It may be Republican Senator Ted Stevens. I'm waiting for the transcript of last night's debate to count the references to "bridge to nowhere".

You know, if she can't shut him up in the campaign, how can Hillary shut him up if she's President? This kind of feeding of the media of the most general identity politics is very sad, particularly because you know that somehow the Clintons see an advantage to it.

Bill Clinton has a reputation as a President that he's clearly on his way to crapping all over as a candidate's spouse. He's become the most obnoxious spouse out there as far as I can tell.

I agree with Ed Leach:

Ed Leach of Hampden Twp. said it might be too late to do anything about the heavy traffic that brings the Carlisle Pike to a standstill more often than not.

"There's a shopping center here, a minimall there, everywhere you turn around, there is another mall," Leach said. "They let people build all these shopping areas, but they haven't built the highway infrastructure to keep up with all the traffic.

"We're beyond the point where they can do anything about it," he said.

Both Hampden and Silver Spring Townships are to blame for allowing building to create such road congestion without any good answer to dealing with the congestion. The real downside is that residential and simple two-lane roads are now being used as get-arounds for the traffic, and because those routes are longer, people are much more likely to speed - since they're already establishing that they're in a hurry because they chose to avoid the Pike.

Cumberland Valley School District ought to be weighing in on this as well, since they have so many educational facilities dependent on the Carlisle Pike for transportation of kids.

Whoever it is, that person keeps sending me spam at Yahoo! I don't love that.

I wonder if John McCain becomes the nominee for the Republicans this year for President, that we might see the former Governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, named as his VP candidate. If there's one major electoral eastern state that might be snaggable for the Republicans this year, Pennsylvania would probably be it, but only if Ridge were there to help. He's a pretty popular former Governor in this state, he could contrast his "good times" tenure versus the Democratic leadership of Ed Rendell, and his military and Homeland Security experience probably could be used beneficially.

There are no other Pennsylvania Republicans that would help McCain. Period.

From Harrisburg's Craigslist:

Hey I just got a pogo stick and am looking for anybody ages 17-30 that pogos as well. If you are from the Harrisburg, Lebanon, Lancaster area please email me and perhaps we can get together and jump around town.

How did I miss this movie, being "The Birds" fan that I am? It even had Rod Taylor in it.

What a sad story the domain politics.com has become. Check out a few of it's past iterations, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:

December 21, 1997
November 10, 2000
August 13, 2001
December 31, 2003
November 1, 2004

And then finally, on July 20, 2006, where we are today:

Backflip Domains is currently interested in purchasing high quality generic domain names that do not infringe on anyone's intellectual property rights such as politics.com, cookie.com, and on.com.

If you have such domains for sale please email us below and include asking price(s). We are also interested in purchasing entire domain portfolios.

Due to volume we can not respond to all messages. We will respond to all offers that meet our quality and price requirements.

All transactions are conducted through a secure escrow process to protect both parties.

Contact us at: domaincookie@yahoo.com

Sure seems like it could have worked out much better than that.

Would a significant economic recession increase, or decrease, email spam?

One of the things about corporate citizenship, and the information you can find out about the concept online, is that they seem to be quid pro quo. Give something to get something. This consulting firm is an example of such writing:

By providing practical solutions to the contemporary problems facing industry related to globalization, sustainability practices, and corporate accountability, CCI facilitates measurable success by connecting western based companies with valuable options to take greater advantage of local markets.

The vision for CCI was born from decades of field experience that took its founder, Kim Veness across much of the developing world. Working in grassroots level sustainability programs with indigenous peoples around the world, and watching their interactions with western business interests, a vision was conceived – to use the emerging marketplace as a driver for sustainable social development while creating profits for business.

I'm for businesses making money, but there needs to be a driver for the argument of citizenship for citizenship's sake, and that driver will not be coming from the business community. As long as profitability is a standard for corporate citizenship, we'll find a very murky environment to define the term.

Citizens have to coalesce and work together to define the concept sans corporations.

It exists!

The best thing about Fred Thompson's run for President - it got him off Law and Order.

Sam - don't run for office.

Michael Medved has an interesting point, but fails to recognize that the personalities he mentions have been big losers for a long, long time.

I had just noticed that nobody had posted that phrase in Google. Period. With the economy's outlook, I'm just setting a marker.

His name? CNN Reporter Joe Johns.

JOHNS: Right. The Nobel Prize-winning African-American author, Toni Morrison, famously observed about Bill Clinton, "This is our first black president, blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime."

Do you think Bill Clinton was our first black president?

That would be an appropriate question to ask Toni Morrison. Maybe that would be an appropriate question to ask Joe Johns, since he thought it was worth asking. But in a debate season in which we have seen at least a couple of moronic questions in every debate, to me, at least, this has been the worst.

Questioners should see themselves as having a responsibility, and that responsibility is this: By asking this question, what can voters get from the response that can tell them something valuable about the candidate(s) that may assist in their voting decision? That is the pure smell test.

Johns' question failed, because it doesn't go to policy, it doesn't go to philosophy, it doesn't go to outlook, it doesn't go to anything other than grading a former President on a freaking racial basis. Appalling.

Obama fumbled around with an answer, but frankly, I'm waiting for a candidate eventually to say at a debate, "That's really quite a silly question and a waste of valuable debate time, and I'm going to pass on answering it because I think there's much more important things to discuss."

but we're Trapped.

I can't say I'm particularly informed about the process of how Martin Luther King Day became a national holiday, but I believe that in order for a holiday to be deemed as "religious", it ought to start as a religious holiday, rather than start as a government-observed holiday. I recognize that King was clergy, but that alone does not make celebration of his life and accomplishments a "religious" celebration.

It should, however, be a day to fully expand our humanity towards others.

More on corporate citizenship:

Above all, a new imperative for business, best described as "global corporate citizenship," must be recognized. It expresses the conviction that companies not only must be engaged with their stakeholders but are themselves stakeholders alongside governments and civil society. International business leaders must fully commit to sustainable development and address paramount global challenges, including climate change, the provision of public health care, energy conservation, and the management of resources, particularly water. Because these global issues increasingly impact business, not to engage with them can hurt the bottom line. Because global citizenship is in a corporation's enlightened self-interest, it is sustainable. Addressing global issues can be good both for the corporation and for society at a time of increasing globalization and diminishing state influence.

I can't tell you what the rest of the report by Klaus Schwab says because it's for fee, but again, what is missing from this paragraph, at least, is the standard and expectation by individual citizens of corporate behavior. That's not a complaint about this report. It's a recognition that there needs to be a discussion and a debate by citizens at a particular level that corporate behavior has impact, and standards and expectations relayed to corporations BY THE CITIZENRY. The argument that the market will tell corporations what is good and bad behavior is an exercise in relativism between markets - what is good for employees may be not so fun for stockholders, what might be good for India is bad for South Dakota - and doesn't try to adopt some expectation of fairness.

Until told, corporations are free to adopt their own standards for "corporate citizenship". There needs to be a model for individuals to state their expectations collectively and effectively.

The Bus Station seems to cover a LOT of territory.

Interesting data site concerning web site traffic.

Okay, Old Man Winter, you win, it's cold out there!

Flickr's amazing. Where else could you find over 500 pictures of sump pumps?

I see this as a positive, in general, the work of Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. And it is important. But there's also a point of perspective that has to be remembered here:

It's corporate, and it's somewhat top down, and the individual is rarely mentioned as the discussion is about citizen amongst institutions.

And you can see it in the way thing are discussed, that this can be construed to be a search to find "what is good for the corporation in corporate citizenship". There's nothing wrong with that by itself, but it is a partial effort. There needs to be an equal effort:

What is good for the individual citizen in corporate citizenship?

I'd like to see university work towards this goal. I realize that individual citizens won't likely pony up the money to create or continue such a Center, so financing is an issue. But maybe there's a way to put something together like this, and maybe it's something that ex-politicians who see the need for this, because they were always railing about corporate lobbyists in Washington, can try to build.

Dear International Delight Management,

You may want to have a discussion with your packaging design department. Your coffee creamer plastic bottles might contain some sweet syrup to improve the taste of coffee, but they are also fabulous vessels to leak that same syrup in one's refrigerator. We try not to buy your product because the container malfunctions so often. Maybe you should just copy Nestle's.

Sincerely,

A Coffee Drinkin' Household

Photo by machschnell18t

Found this via Geeky Mom. I still strongly prefer Edwards to Obama, however.

83% Barack Obama
80% Mike Gravel
80% John Edwards
79% Dennis Kucinich
77% Joe Biden
77% Bill Richardson
76% Chris Dodd
75% Hillary Clinton
40% John McCain
38% Rudy Giuliani
37% Ron Paul
32% Mitt Romney
29% Mike Huckabee
25% Tom Tancredo
21% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Because somebody will.

Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie will become the only state park with beaches patrolled by lifeguards.

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources says it is cutting 84 lifeguard positions at 15 other state parks with beaches.

Man, they're everywhere this year!

The thumbnail-size insect has hurt fruit and soybean crops in China and Japan. Researchers say the bug probably hitched a ride to the United States on shipping containers — much like the emerald ash borer that has recently damaged trees across the state.

The stink bugs were first reported in Pennsylvania in 1998, and have since spread from New York to Virginia.

The species could pose a serious problem to agriculture because it has no natural predators, parasites, or diseases to help control its population.

During the winter, they like to crawl through cracks into homes to escape the cold.

But they are harmless to people — except for the unpleasant odor they release when disturbed.

Found one hanging out in my shower this morning. Flush! I'd suspect my housekeeping but even my compulsively tidy friends are finding them.

This question is about design, and ease on the eyes and the ability to read:

Which blog do you find easiest to scan and read?

I see a national market brewing for heavy internet users that will want to tell any provider that changes from flat rate to usage rate charging a big FO.

After all, it was those very heavy users that really provided a base in the first place to expose "light users" to the benefits of higher speed. Likely to be hurt the most by a practice of billing high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee: small businesses that use the Internet to expand their viability.

Finally, here's the big question - what kind of reduced price is Time Warner going to give the light users that don't meet whatever usage threshold they are going to use? I don't see how they can argue that today's price is the minimum, if they're blaming 5% of the client base for 50% of the network bandwidth and plan to charge them for that, then the other 95% ought to see a reduction in cost.

Otherwise, it's just a plan to jab for profit.

Is the nation getting louder during sex?

Are you concerned if someone hears you making love?

52.7% No
6.3% Only if its the kids.
28.7% Sometimes.
12.3% Yes

Total votes: 4836

This story would be funny, if the protagonists, Countrywide and Mozilo, weren't so involved in such national damage.

And if Mozilo wasn't paid so handsomely for all the ugliness.

The CEO of Countrywide Financial sold off $145 million worth of company stock options months before Countrywide plunged toward bankruptcy in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Angelo Mozilo earned $48 million last year and stands to walk away with an additional $115 million in severance and benefits if Bank of America goes through with its plan, announced last week, to buy Countrywide for $4.1 billion. Mr. Mozilo got out comfortably in time. Most investors didn't, as the company's stock price fell from about $40 to less than $6. Meanwhile, thousands of borrowers across the country were losing their homes and defaulting on Countrywide's loans.

Maybe Mozilo is too busy to speak in San Diego because he's gotta talk to the lawyers...

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants to know how Mr. Mozilo can rake in millions while so many others lost everything.

... they better start running!!

PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) — Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Green Bay Packers jersey during the team's playoff victory Saturday, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him.

Mathew Kowald was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident with his son at their home in Pardeeville, Lt. Wayne Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department said. Pardeeville is about 30 miles north of Madison.

The 36-year-old Kowald was arrested Monday after his wife told authorities about the incident. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until Wednesday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released.

Although they may get through their childhood undamaged if he has to wait for a Bears playoff victory.

There are still a lot of pretty stupid ideas having considerable money spent on it basically because people think the Internet will somehow change how people interact with the concept even though it is clear that in reality THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED. They need a label.

I suggest they be considered This Year's CueCat, or something like that.

David Brzoska IS the Tiger Beetle Man.

And yes, I much appreciate news stories about amateur entomologists. But Mr. Brzoska is more than that, having spent so much of his life in the study of these animals.

I don't know about you, but the past two days have seemed like "dialup" slow at times.

One down, 33.4 million to go.

Maybe it'll be a little more even in the number of questions asked per candidate. Can't MSNBC even try to provide some parity in question numbers?

These debates are like watching surrogate boxing. Questions from the news media are intended to fulfill the media's need, not the voters and not the candidates. I don't, and we shouldn't, care about the news media's need to be able to run 10 second "gotcha" clips like the dishonest effort that Tim Russert made both during and after the debate last night about keeping troops in Iraq. Well, I guess we should care that Tim Russert is more interested in his advantage than the country's when asking questions, but that's not a surprise to anyone who pays attention.

Here's a great question Edwards asked Obama:

Well, let me start this question. This is about campaign finances. And let me start it by saying the obvious, which is, all three of us have raised a great deal of money in this campaign, so this is not preachy or holier-than-thou in any possible way.

What we know is that all three of us want to do something about health care in this country. We also know that until recently, Senator Clinton had raised more money from drug companies and insurance companies than any candidate, Democrat or Republican, until you passed her, Senator Obama, recently to go to number one.

My question is, do you think these people expect something for this money?

Why do they give it? Do they think that it's for good government? Why do they do it?

The answer wasn't good.

SEN. OBAMA: Well, let's be clear, John. I just want to make sure that we understand. I don't take money from federal lobbyists. I don't take money from PACs.

MR. EDWARDS: As I don't either.

SEN. OBAMA: As you don't either.

What happens is, is that you've got — if you've got a mid-level executive at a drug company or insurance company who is inspired by my message of change, and they send me money, then that's recorded as money from the drug or the insurance industry, even though it's not organized, coordinated or in any way subject to the problems that you see when lobbyists are given money. But — and I'm proud of the fact that I've raised more money from small donors than anybody else, and that we're getting 25, 50, $100 donations, and we've done very well doing it that way.

Now, what I'm also proud of is the fact that in reducing special interest lobbying, I alone of the candidates here have actually taken away the power of lobbyists. Part of the reason that you know who's bundling money for various candidates is because of a law I passed this year which says, lobbyists, if you are taking money from anybody and putting it together and then giving it to a member of Congress, that has to be disclosed. Ultimately what I'd like to see is a system of public financing of campaigns, and I'm a cosponsor of the proposal that's in the Senate right now.

That's what we have to fight for.

In the meantime, what I'm very proud of is to make sure that we continue to make progress at the federal level to push back the influence that lobbyists have right now. And that's something that I'm going to continue to work on.

However, I'm willing to give Obama a pass on this answer for now - I don't think the question was expected, and I don't think it is thought about outside the box much by either Obama or Clinton. But this question - and more delving questions - must be asked, and the issue should be probed within the context of the election. People vote their pocketbooks. There's a reason that so many in the insurance or drug companies are "inspired" by the message. What is it? The news media does not ask these kinds of questions. Obama's answer is really an indictment of the debate system and the news media - Presidential candidates are not asked these kinds of basic structural questions about how Washington operates, or to discuss the morals involved in that operation. Candidates are not forced to think about it. In fact, because questions are not continually asked about this area, candidates are forced NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT, and to think about the answers for the trivial items that will be asked, such as:

"Given the decision to run for president in the first place has to be and should be one of the most important and memorable decision-making moments any American can make, tell us when you made that decision."

I'm pretty sure that asking for a time frame for when they made the decision didn't help one voter make a decision for who they will vote.

I'd like to see a debate of ALL candidate questions to other candidates, and make the moderators ONLY moderators. No questions from the audience, no questions from the news media.

Interesting - at this site, you might be able to find a post by someone else who has gone through - or is doing - the same thing as you.

If you ever wanted to have a locker room skit of guys poking each other in the butt, over and over and over and over and over and over and over, then consider doing a good writeup on baseball's steroid story.

Hard to believe the value decline in this decade. From Hoovers:

The company has seen its ownership change a number of times. After being acquired by VeriSign for about $15 billion in 2000, Network Solutions was sold to investment firm Pivotal Group in 2003 for $100 million. Pivotal sold Network Solutions to General Atlantic, a private equity firm specializing in information technology companies, early in 2007.

I wonder what General Atlantic thinks of Network Solutions' status - and reputation - in the marketplace at this point.

This is very unethical on their part. If you whois a domain on Network Solutions, they reserve it in an effort to force you to buy it at their exorbitant prices. Total ripoff.

They do not deserve yours - or anyone's - business. Nor do they deserve the privilege of being a domain registrar any longer.

Complete BS on their part. I hope one of the other registrars sues them.

Oh, the irony of this bit of email spam:

Countrywide: The Trusted Name in Home Loans

My mortgage with them is less than a year old. Favorable fixed rate, everything's good, why would I do a deal with them now? Desperation...

When will some media types wise up, create a cable channel covering only homicides 24/7, and take away the advertising revenue that CNN gets for about 8 hours a day of their programming?

Seriously - just how national is the Cesar Laurean - Maria Lauterbach case anyways?

There's a lot of buzz out there about the health benefits of the neti pot.

For 21 straight years I've dutifully pumped my body full of drugs with names like Zyrtec, Optivar, Astelin, Benadryl, Nasalcort, Allegra, Singulair, Nasonex, Claritan, Clarinex and Seldane - shelling out anywhere from $10 to $35 per month, per drug, just for the right to breathe.

Last year, my allergies were so bad in the winter and spring, I was spending $100 a month on a three-drug cocktail, just so I could see (the allergies affected my eyes), breathe and sleep.

That, the medical experts told me, was my only choice.

So imagine my surprise the first time I tried the "neti pot."

The neti pot is a simple device - it looks like an Aladdin lamp crossed with an old-fashioned cream pourer - that allows users to engage in nasal irrigation.

What's nasal irrigation? Well, it