Arkansas Blog

That one was a real howler Max. Thanks.

Here's more Friday Night lights...watching Hillary have her Come-to-Jesus moment. Bill is not ready for his just yet. Can we all say Kum Bee Yah.

"Commerce Department data showed U.S. personal spending rose by a greater-than-expected 0.8 percent in May."

I can just hear the Bushists and the BEDs (Bush enabling Democrats) chortling in glee that the stim checks worked. How is 0.8% such an improvement? If you factor in the price jumps for utilities, food, gasoline, and doodads that we import from around the world, that 0.8% becomes a negative number.

I was listening to some talking head Bush apologist on NPR telling us that the 4% inflation we are feeling right now is laughable when compared to 10% inflation during the 1970s sparked by the 1973 oil crisis. Again the world of numbers. When in 1973 gasoline was at 50 cents per gallon, a 10% increase bumped it up 5 cents. Today, a "mere" 4% increase on a $3.80 gallon of gas bumps it up nearly 16 cents. Translate that to food and every other expense we have and pretty soon we are talking about real money.

It's people's perception of economic pain, not pundits' prestidigitations of percentages that will prompt an overhaul of our economic system. The speculators, the obscenely compensated corporate executives, the banking and credit card industries rejoice that they have profited richly through their manipulations of the political system. It's time they paid the piper.

Pretty nice that at least one young person in America has been observant about what is going on in the political world. I am sure there are more, gives me hope that we'll get past the dark time this nation has endured for the past seven plus years.

Isn't that just a Will Ferrell lip-synch?

Here ya go Goof................

clicky

Yep, that's Will Ferrell, but the kid does great!

That's fantastic! Thank's Jazzy!

My dad used to tell us he walked miles to school everyday in the rain and snow - over the years the miles grew and he weather got worse, but I do think these guys from a Monty Python skit could have taught him a thing or two.........

LOL Click on my name and enjoy 4 old guys trying to out do each other with their hard youth stories........

Jazzy, that could make a lot of folks homesick!

Scalia: Al Gore responsible for 2000 election mess. Click on Cato

The speculators, the obscenely compensated corporate executives, the banking and credit card industries rejoice that they have profited richly through their manipulations of the political system. It's time they paid the piper.<< Jim

It ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Voters have yet to realize they get their choice of which faction of the Corporation Party to cast a vote for.

Goof and Nanc..I'm such an old softie....sit here and blubber over all things that touch me....
which is most everything....Frenchie says I cry at a new McDonalds opening.
Would love to drive down to Na'Awlens,,,,but, on the other hand afraid it would break my
heart.

If you want, I'll send you a picture of the old homestead. Three blocks from the St. Louisa St. Wharf. Have Max email me.

Crude oil prices 1861 - 2008.

Click on Cato

Carlin's funeral to see pickets.
Click on Cato

Have any of you seen the "ball girl" video? It really is amazing......

Found out it is a commercial for Gatorade, but still fun to watch.

Click

Cato that's a neat graph but it ends at $119 a barrel and it's now $30 more. Click on my name to see a graph of the more than doubling of oil in the last year.

Cato that's a neat graph but it ends at $119 a barrel and it's now $30 more. Click on my name to see a graph of the more than doubling of oil in the last year.

"Carlin's funeral to see pickets."

Don't you know George would love to see it if he were alive!

Here's an interesting timeline of Internet(s) memes. I was surprised at how many of these things I'd never heard of.

Remember Steven Hartfill? The scientist whose house searches were televised in connection with the anthrax scares a few years ago? Guess what? "Without admitting any wrongdoing", the government is paying him $6,000,000 just for, um, USING HIM to scare up Republican votes.

Think they won't try ANYTHING this time around? Think again, and watch out.

Goof,, love to see your pix.....Lord, can almost see the area you talk about.........
does Max have your address?? he has mine if he didn't deep six it................
Some folks already starting fireworks across the lake for 4th July...............
wish it meant what it did before idiotmoron..............dream on
Obama and Hillary made me proud today.

Jazzy, I will email him a second time.

Yeah.....once again there's proof that our current government can't do a damn thing right. Mr. Hatfill hits the lottery to the tune of 6 million because the Bushies blame him for white powder when he was only guilty of having a bad last name. Imagine if his last name was any kind of Muslim sounding. 6 million.....of our tax dollars because those we employee can't find their ass with both hands.

I hope you all realize and will soon get used to seeing Obama and Clinton together. There is our 2008 Democratic ticket. You don't help pay the loser's debts or carry them around with you unless you're fixing to name them as your VP candidate. I know some of you will bitch and moan, but Hillary is the best pick if you want to see old man McCain buried like the corpse he is this coming November. It's very plan that Barack has no plans to run a gentlemanly Gore or Kerry campaign this time around. He aims to win and win big and for crying out loud....now is sure the time to do it!

Hopefully I'm not growing me a tumor, because I plan on enjoying the next 4 to 8 years while I watch America make a giant correction and return to the country we were fooled into thinking we always were. We've had decades of bullshit and Mark Pryor-ism and it's time it stopped! Obama is going to do that for us if we can just keep him alive to win. McAin't-gonna-do-it is heading for the worst embarrassment in US campaign history and good.

Let's bury them Republicans so they don't see the light of day for 50 years. In a crueler time they would be lined up and shot...so be thankful R's that you're getting a break. But by all means....SCAT, you bad trash! You had your chance and you did every FK'ing thing wrong, as wrong as wrong can be. Come on November! Come on January 20th, 2009! Let's get jiggy with putting our country back together!

Hugh Mann, I went to your "meme" link and I'm sorry to say I passed with at least a high B. Your child is not on the internets, yet, or you'd know all those and a few more.

CiCi- you're right on!

From Wednesday's Wall St. Journal

Even if it was a fake, it was fun to watch!

Gatorade Scores With 'Ball Girl'

An online video dubbed "Ball Girl" has been getting a huge viral boost. The video, which began appearing online a few weeks ago, features a ball girl for the Fresno Grizzlies minor-league baseball team scaling the outfield wall to make a stunning catch of a foul ball. She then insouciantly tosses the ball to the left fielder, who looks on disbelievingly, and quietly returns to her seat along the foul line.

The video, which was created by Omnicom Group's Element 79, has attracted 1.2 million views on Digg.com alone.

Turns out the spot is a fake. The key to the source of the spot comes at the very end of the ad, as the girl returns to her seat -- a bottle of Gatorade appears briefly at her feet. The ball girl is, in fact, a stunt woman who uses cables to help elevate her in the air, the ad agency says. Element 79, which shot the spot in April, intended to release the film online and tried to make the ad look like a homemade video.

The sleeker version of the ad (which was to carry the tagline: "Never Underestimate the Power of Superior Hydration") was supposed to air on TV. But the spot and online video were never green-lighted because the Chicago agency was dropped from PepsiCo's Gatorade and Tropicana ad account, according to Dennis Ryan, chief creative officer at Element 79. He says he doesn't know how the spot made its way to the Web -- nor does Gatorade.

"We didn't put the Ball Girl video out there but clearly we are pleasantly surprised at all the attention," says a spokeswoman for Gatorade.

Creating the ad was no easy feat. The agency says it had to wait for just the right foul ball to left field during the game and then had to persuade more than 1,500 fans to stay after the game ended so it could shoot the stunt woman making her leap and the crowd reacting.

While Element 79 has done many well-known ads for sports drinks over the years, PepsiCo executives had been dissatisfied with Element 79's recent creative work, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Gatorade business was shifted to Omnicom's TBWA/Chiat/Day.

NBC to honor Carlin with historic replay
"Saturday Night Live" will not be live this weekend. It won't even be from this century. With the death of George Carlin, NBC has gone into its video vault and will re-air the very first SNL from 1975. Carlin, already a famous comedian by then, was the very first guest host. "He was gracious, fearless, and most important of all, funny," recalled SNL creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels.

Cato, your oil price graph brought back fun memories of 1968. I had my first Volkswagen "bug" and it took a whopping $4.25 to fill it up. But, as the graph shows it didn't take a Republican president long to get the price of oil doubled....but we know that is bullshit, it's just the law of supply and demand at work.

The lies that people are willing to believe!!

According to C-Span tonight 78% of Americans cannot calculate the interest on a mortgage. 58% cannot figure a 10% tip on a restaurant bill. No wonder Bush/Cheney got by with it all and Ms Blanche gets to tell her pretty little stories at election time.

Will Ferrell did a better job.

"58% cannot figure a 10% tip on a restaurant bill."

Well, I guess they really can't figure a 15% tip then. Poor servers...

I think that was Will Ferrell, and the kids expressions are the best.

All this time I thought it was .15 cent tip. Damn.

Hugh Man's memes are cool.

A couple of new "memes" were floating around last week you may not have seen.

"I am aware of ALL internet traditions"....neon neocon

and

"John McCain is aware of the internet".....McCain staffer

When you read the next to the last paragraph, remember that of the 19 hijackers from 9/11, that 15 were Saudi and 2 were Egyptian.

US Congress approves Israel aid increase

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Congress has approved a 170 million dollar increase in security assistance to Israel as part of its new 10-year, 30 billion dollar defense aid commitment to the Jewish state.

The money for Israel was part of a larger supplemental spending bill that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation gained final approval in a 92-6 Senate vote late Thursday.

America's pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, welcomed the congressional action, saying it would increase US aid to Israel to 2.55 billion dollars in fiscal year 2009, up from 2.38 billion dollars this year.

"The US commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge is the cornerstone of American policy in the region," AIPAC said in a statement Friday.

"This year's package holds heightened significance for US security interests, as the US and Israel face new challenges from Iran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons as well as the growing influence of radical anti-western forces to Israel's south in Gaza and to the north in Lebanon."

The package was unveiled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 30 as part of a new military pact with US allies in the Middle East in a bid to "counter the negative influences" of militant groups Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah as well as arch enemies Iran and Syria.

The aid includes a 20 billion dollar weapons package for Saudi Arabia, a 13 billion dollar package for Egypt, and reportedly arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars for other Gulf states.

The military aid to Israel reflected an increase in value of more than 25 percent, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said, describing the package as a considerable improvement and very important element for national security.

So we're giving Israel 30 billion. Their pop is around 5 million.

That's $6,000 for every man woman and child in Israel.

/better stimulus check than mine

But bit... the Iraqis aren't rebuilding with their own money, certainly not faster than we keep blowing them up with our money.

mag,

Shoot, I didn't even get connected to the series of tubes until 1999 or so. But I did have a technology job for about 5 years that allowed me to surf to my heart's content for hours on end. That's why I was surpirsed I'd only seen a little over half of these memes.

Junior (almost 5) by no means has free rein on the Web, but he can navigate pbskids.org with the best of them.